Chuck vs the Mini Skirt
by Extreme Stratusfaction
Summary: Ever wondered what Casey would look like in an Orange Orange uniform? Sarah and Casey swap jobs in order to secure Chuck's cover at the Buy More. Chuck and Sarah now work together in the Nerd Herd and complications ensue.
1. Chapter 1

Put on white t-shirt.

Put on black pants.

Put on white collared shirt. Button white collared shirt.

Put grey tie around neck. Knot grey tie.

Put on white left sock. Put on white right sock.

Put on left black Converse. Put on right black Converse. Tie left black Converse. Tie right black Converse.

Stand up. Look in the mirror. Sigh.

Insert badge.

_Chuck Bartowski  
Nerd Herd Supervisor  
Buy More_

Drive to work.

Sit at Nerd Herd desk.

Say smart things.

Sigh.

Ignore Jeff and Lester.

Help customers.

Sigh.

Count the seconds.

Keep counting.

Keep counting.

Keep counting.

It's time.

Get frozen yogurt.

_Sorry, we're __closed__._

Sigh.

Go back to work

Sit at Nerd Herd desk.

Say smart things.

Sigh.

Ignore Jeff and Lester.

Help customers.

Sigh.

Count the seconds.

Keep counting.

Keep counting.

Keep counting.

It's time.

Drive back home.

Remove badge.

_Chuck Bartowski  
Nerd Herd Supervisor  
Buy More_

Kick off right black Converse. Kick off left black Converse.

Pull off right white sock. Pull off left white sock.

Unknot grey tie. Remove grey tie.

Unbutton white collared shirt. Take off white collared shirt.

Take off black pants.

Take off white t-shirt.

Sit down. Look in mirror. Sigh.

The same routine day after day after day.

Until one night.

_I love you._

Until three words.

_I love you._

Until ten painful seconds passed.

_I love you._

Until too many reasons to count kept him coming back to Sarah Walker day after day after day.

…_I love you, too._

**Chuck vs. the Mini Skirt**

It had been three months since that night. The last time Chuck had sighed was this morning while he watched her sleep in the first rays of the rising sun. She smiles when she sleeps next to him. Add that to the list of things he loves about her.

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

The alarm was on her side of the bed and she was spooned into him. He heard her tired moan from the back of her throat as she kept her eyes shut, and he could tell she was in no mood to make any efforts at turning it off. He leaned over and kissed her forehead from an angle as his long arm dropped his hand on the snooze button. Her smile had vanished at the obnoxious sound, but it returned when she heard the sweet sound of nothing. She pulled the arm she had already been holding onto around her tighter and lessened the nonexistent gap between them even more.

"That's a three minute snooze," Chuck softly warned her as he mumbled into her hair.

The only noise from her was a barely audible, "Mhm…"

He felt her slip her fingers into the space between his and he ran his thumb back and forth over hers. Chuck didn't blame her for being so exhausted. Beckman had placed her in charge of overseeing further construction to Castle the night before. It was always at night so that people wouldn't notice NSA construction workers disappearing inside an Orange Orange for multiple hours. It wouldn't have been so bad if they hadn't just come back from an all day excruciating extraction mission, complete with her having to distract some touchy feely creep throughout it. After the long night, Sarah just wanted to get to bed as fast as possible. The sky was already lighting up when she drove home. Not having the energy to get out her key, she went through the window. As she climbed through, she had the random thought that now that Morgan lived there and had a key, did that still make Chuck's window the Morgan Door? She waved it off as her overly tired mind screwing around. Immediately stripping down to next to nothing once inside, she crawled into bed with him and passed out.

It was a solid two hours later and Sarah was regretting having not planted a knife under her pillow as the alarm blared a foot away from her head. Chuck and his stupid weapons rule. She snuggled deeper into the pillow as the timer on the snooze hit zero once more. Sarah clenched her eyes shut and wished it would all just go away.

"Chuck," she whimpered in the tiniest, most pathetic voice he could ever recall hearing.

Chuck's sympathy multiplied itself by a hundred and he turned it off again for her. "Shh," he whispered in her ear, "it's okay. Go back to sleep."

Chuck made sure to cover her bare back with the blanket after he had gotten out of bed. Walking barefoot into the kitchen area, Chuck saw Morgan preparing what looked to be some gourmet breakfast.

"Ah, good morning, double-O." Morgan stopped cooking and stared at him. "I knew it," he said, "even secret agents get bed head."

Without thinking, Chuck brought his hand to his hair and attempted to smooth his curls lazily.

"Hey, buddy. What are you making?" Chuck walked over and looked at the food he'd prepared already.

"Little of everything, Chuck," Morgan announced. "Up next: omelettes." Morgan grabbed a pan but didn't get a good grip on it and it crashed back down on the counter.

"Morgan!" Chuck whispered harshly. "Sarah's in there trying to sleep. She was up all last night."

Morgan flashed an apologetic look, but then smiled wide. "You stallion, you." He punched Chuck lightly in the chest. "I'm impressed. I'd think it'd take a lot to tire a girl like Sarah out."

"I didn't—what do you mean, "a girl like Sarah"?" Chuck asked, sounding like he was beginning to get very protective.

Morgan didn't blink. "See, buddy, I know that look. You're forgetting I did it with Carina. Sarah and Carina: both sexy, strong government agents. And as I learned from experience? It takes a lot to tire girls like that out."

"Alright, whatever," Chuck said, shaking his head. "But she was _working_ all night and got no sleep, so I'm gonna grab some stuff for her."

"Sure, sure," Morgan nodded. "Oh, I forgot, how'd the mission go yesterday?"

"Accomplished."

Morgan started chopping peppers for the omelettes. "Well that makes one of us. People keep noticing you ducking out in the middle of work. Lester's on my case saying I let it slide since we're best friends. Chuck, man, if that starts going around I could lose my job."

"Crap, buddy, I don't know what to say. Thanks for looking out, I guess. I'll try talking to Beckman, see what we can do. I don't want my life affecting yours."

"No problemo," he said. "I've just been telling them you're either on an install or with your sleeping beauty over there. The thing is, that doesn't work out all the time."

"Don't worry I'll get right on that." Chuck grabbed an assortment of fresh fruit and breakfast foods and put them on the tray he had taken out for Sarah. "…Alright, I'm off," Chuck said after getting all her favorite foods.

"Let me know what she thinks of it!" Morgan called after Chuck as he carried a tray full of breakfast foods back to his room.

The lights were turned off and Chuck placed the tray down on his side of the bed. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, he lightly pushed her hair out of her face. "Sarah? Wake up, sweetheart."

"No," she whined, "You said I could sleep."

"I know, but I brought you breakfast. When's the last time you even ate anything?" Sarah just lay there silently while he waited for an answer. "Exactly. Come on, you can keep the lights off but you need to eat something."

Sarah sat up reluctantly. Looking at him, she said, "Why do you insist on taking such good care of me?"

"Because someone has to," he told her, "And I won't let anyone else."

Sarah took a grape and popped it into her mouth. Looking at the wide array of food choices, she asked, "Chuck, did you make all of this?"

"Are you kidding?" he said. "Morgan did. Also, he told me my cover's close to being blown if I keep skipping out on the Buy More. So I've got to get ready for work."

Sarah took another grape and threw it where it bounced off the center of his forehead. "Booo. Stay and cuddle with me." She leaned in and whispered, "I promise I'll make it worth your while."

"Thank you for that," he said. "Both, the grape, and the very tempting offer," he added. "But I've got to go talk to Beckman about what we can do to fix this."

Chuck walked off and grabbed his clothes to change into. Sarah watched him as he was tying his tie in the mirror. "Hey, Chuck?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you maybe not explain my absence through having a spastic colon? I have an image to maintain, you know. Spastic colons don't exactly scream 'sex appeal.'"

Chuck smiled brightly and turned to walk towards her. "Oh no, definitely not. I'm chewing out Beckman for last night. No way am I letting her do that to my girl."

Sarah smiled back at him and narrowed her eyes. "You're just begging for a black eye today, aren't you?"

"Are you implying that black eyes don't scream 'sex appeal'?" he said mocking her.

"I'll take that as a 'yes.'"

After finishing getting dressed he walked over to the bed. "Alright, duty calls." He planted a small kiss on her cheek, and she then grabbed his tie to stop him as he began to leave.

"Hey," she said, looking at his mouth for a while before switching her focus to straightening the fabric around his neck. "I love you."

Chuck's face brightened and he leaned in to kiss her on the lips, reluctantly pulling away to say, "I love you, too. Get some rest."

l ll l ll l

Chuck clocked in on time at work and worked as if he had never gotten that email from Bryce in the first place. That is, until Jeff and Lester came up to him.

"Oh, Jeffrey, look who it is!" Lester made a high pitch voice as he referred to the tall curly haired nerd. "It's the mythical creature, Charles Bartowski, who has inexplicably returned to his kingdom. For what reason, I wonder?"

Chuck gave them a tight-lipped smile. "Don't you guys have any work you should be doing?"

"I haven't asked myself that in twenty years," Jeff said with glazed over eyes as he unsteadily tried to stay on two feet.

"That's super, Jeff, but I'm actually pretty swamped so if you guys don't mind, I think I'm going to get back to work," Chuck said trying to brush them off.

"I bet you are, Charles," Lester said. "What with all the hours you've skipped, I imagine there must be a whole backup of work for you. You know, back in my days as assistant manager, I would not have let this off the hook quite as easily as our current ass man."

"But in your days as assistant manager you _would_ fire the entire staff, give away free merchandise, and throw an unsanctioned after hours party on Buy More property," Chuck retorted.

"That—those—trivial details—you," Lester could only stutter as he tried thinking of a comeback. "…Jeff! Jefferson, your blood sugar is low and I should help, you, with that. Right away! Life or death, Jeffrey, life or death!"

And with that Chuck was left alone for the time being. A couple hours later, however, he got a text from Casey telling him there was a meeting in five.

"Ah ah ahh," Lester sang as he intercepted Chuck making his escape. "And where do you think you're going?"

"Uh, offsite install," Chuck lied.

"Hm, interesting, because… I didn't hear anyone call. Jeffrey, did you hear anything?" He turned to look at Jeff.

"It's always ringing in my head. Same with the voices, but I've gotten used to them."

Lester and Chuck both had frightened expressions on their faces as they slowly turned their gaze away from the man who had been working at the store since it first opened.

"Okay," Chuck laughed, "You got me. I was sneaking out to go see Sarah. You know. My _girlfriend_. She can be very demanding."

"Ah, yes, the man speaks the truth." Lester lightly punched Jeff's chest in warning. "Watch out for that one, Charles, I know firsthand how, ahem, _insistent_ she is. Yeah, but sometimes you just have to say no!" Lester made a fast hand gesture demonstrating to Chuck what had only happened in his mind. "She responds to a firm hand. I made the mistake of trying to let her down easy, but I guess she just couldn't resist." Lester sighed nostalgically. "Wouldn't be the first."

Chuck stared at Lester. "Thanks for the tip."

"Hold on, man," Jeff slurred. "Blondie isn't here today."

"Jeff, how would you even know that?"

"I know all things."

Deciding not to get into any disturbing details, Chuck just said, "Jeff, stop stalking my girlfriend. Lester, she needs me to grab something at the Orange Orange for her and bring it over. If you don't want me to do it, then I guess that just leaves you for the job, and something tells me you wouldn't feel very comfortable doing that." Lester blushed profusely at just the thought of performing that task. "So I'm going to go now, and you two can get back to bugging someone else." And with that, Chuck walked past them and out the Buy More doors.

l ll l ll l

"Where's Walker?" Casey asked when Chuck got there.

'_Don't say spastic colon. Don't say spastic colon. Don't say spastic colon.'_

"Uh… She's out uh, buying tampons. Yeah, it's that time of the month, I guess…" Chuck closed his eyes hard. _'Much better, Chuck.'_

"Great, just what the world needs," Casey commented, "Another pissy woman who knows a hundred different ways to kill us all."

Chuck issued a pity laugh and the screen finally turned on revealing the NSA director.

After a follow-up debriefing on the mission prior to that day, Chuck asked Beckman if she could spare him a few extra minutes, as something had come up. Casey went back to the Buy More, as he had toasters to sell.

"Agent Bartowski," the general greeted him dryly. "To what do I owe this conversation?"

"Good seeing you, too, General," Chuck smiled awkwardly, fully aware of her annoyance. "I wanted to talk to you about recent news that my cover at the Buy More is coming into question by my peers..."

After catching General Beckman up on the full story she seemed shaken at best. Her parting words were something along the lines of, "We'll work on it."

Once the monitor shut off, displaying the NSA symbol in place of General Beckman's face, Chuck heard the freezer door open and turned around.

"Hey, there, Beautiful," he said to the woman coming down the stairs. "How are you feeling?"

"Great," she said, getting off the last step and walking over to him. "Thanks to you." Sarah placed her hands on his upper chest and kissed him. It wasn't relaying every single passionate feeling she'd ever felt for him, but it was one he had come accustomed to now that they were secure enough to not have to jump each other when they got the chance. It was simply a kiss a girlfriend would give to her boyfriend, which is the kind they had been waiting years to be able to do. "How was your meeting with Beckman?"

"We're working on it," Chuck told her. "I guess I just have to wait and see what the new game plan is."

Sarah reached out and straightened his tie. "You would look pretty cute in an Orange Orange uniform," she said.

"Assuming there is a men's version of said uniform," Chuck corrected. "I doubt I could pull off this look as well as you do." Chuck ran his hands up and down her sides over the orange spaghetti strap she had on.

Sarah tilted her head and with a tiny smile, responded, "You might not be able to pull it off, but I'd love it if you'd _take_ it off…" Sarah slid her fingers under one of the straps flirtatiously. "You still owe me after turning me down this morning."

"Owe _you_?" he said incredulously. "Do you have any idea what it's like having to sit at the Buy More all day knowing a ready and willing Sarah Walker is currently in my bed? I'd say I've suffered enough."

"We'll see," she sang before a wide grin spread across her face.

"Oh, really," he retorted, slipping his hands into her back pockets and pulling her closer. Sarah only had time to giggle slightly before she was kissing him again. Chuck squeezed with his hands, eliciting a small noise at the back of her throat. They were so caught up in making out with one another that the short succession of beeps that came from the monitor almost went unheard. Sarah was the first to realize what it meant and she forcefully shoved Chuck away from her, causing him to back pedal several steps before collapsing backwards into one of the chairs at the center table.

"What the hell, Sar—"

"General!" Sarah greeted, sounding extremely out of breath.

"Ah, Agent Walker, I see you've decided to join us," General Beckman observed, choosing not to address her breathlessness. "Very well then, it will save us all from another briefing. Chuck," she started, looking at the seated agent. "After thinking over this problem regarding your cover at the Buy More, it has been decided that a new job is in order."

Chuck stood up abruptly. "General, is that really necessary? I mean, I was a part of the Nerd Herd long before the CIA and that's technically my job. I have the skill set."

"You _job_ is protecting this country as an agent for the CIA. But if you had let me finish," she said pointedly at him, "yours is not the one that needs changing." She then looked at Sarah. "Sarah, you will become the newest member of…"

'_Please, God, no,'_ Sarah thought over and over again in her head.

"…The Nerd Herd." Sarah was frozen in place and didn't even turn when the freezer door opened behind them. "Good, Mr. Grimes is here. He will assist us in securing your position as Chuck's partner." As this Sarah finally perked up. This was not unnoticed by Beckman. "Chuck's co-workers already think he has been leaving work to spend time with you, but your absence has put this cover in jeopardy. As his partner, when people see that you both are sneaking out they will immediately assume that you are either on an install together or are… ahem… enjoying the benefits of your intimate relationship. Grimes will explain the rest."

"Thank you, General," Morgan said, obviously enjoying being considered a valued member of the team.

Beckman decided not to acknowledge him before signing off.

"Morgan, please tell me under no circumstances will I actually have to fix a computer," Sarah pleaded.

"Don't worry, Sarah, I've got everything under control. First thing's first." Morgan turned and looked at his best friend. Out of nowhere he said, "How much do you love her?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Chuck said confused.

"Answer the question," Morgan said.

"No, I'm not gonna—"

"Answer the question, Chuck," Sarah said as she stood there with her arms crossed.

Chuck looked at her and then back at Morgan. He sighed and said, "A lot."

"And how much is 'a lot'?" Morgan prodded. Chuck could tell he was quickly turning into Doctor Morgan. At least he didn't have a pen.

And there it was.

Morgan rapidly clicked the pen that had materialized into his hands as he waited for Chuck to answer.

Doing anything to stop the incessant clicking, Chuck blurted out, "A whole lot, okay? More than anything in the entire universe. I love Sarah more than anything in the history of history. Good enough?"

"Let's not go overboard," Morgan said. Chuck threw up his arms and looked over at Sarah who gave him a quick wink, calming him down. "I ask because from now on the two of you will be working together in the trenches of Buymoria. And even the strongest of love can fall victim to the constant strain of—"

"Morgan, just tell me if I have to fix a computer or not," Sarah interrupted.

Going off track from his original presentation, Morgan's shoulders sagged. "No. You won't. I'm assistant manager. I'm starting a new mentor program. Chuck's your mentor. You just sit and watch." He listed off each step of his plan monotonously with hand gestures.

"Perfect!" Sarah said happily. She walked over to Chuck and whispered in his ear, "Now you're going to have to learn how to deal with a ready and willing Sarah Walker standing next to you all day." Chuck opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by her lightly kissing him before walking over to the stairs. Stopping at Morgan, she kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you, Morgan." Morgan had a shocked but blissful look on his face as Sarah walked up the staircase. That bliss was quickly wiped away once his eyes connected with Chuck's.

"I should get back to the store," Morgan hinted.

"Yeah." Morgan turned to follow Sarah up the stairs. "Other way!" Chuck yelled.

"Yup!" he said, spinning around and going to the back door of Castle.

Chuck watched him go and shook his head. He went to talk to Sarah in Orange Orange upstairs. "Congratulations," Chuck sighed as he walked out from the freezer. Sarah turned and looked at him. "You just earned yourself yet another admirer."

Sarah smiled and turned back to what she was doing. "Who, Morgan?" she asked as she wiped down the counter.

"Yes, Morgan," he said impatiently as he walked over next to her. "Was that kiss absolutely necessary?"

Sarah sighed and picked up the towel. Turning to face him she said, "Relax, I was just sucking up to the new boss. Now we'll get breaks whenever we want." She then went back to wiping the counter.

"Unbelievable," Chuck said. "Every single thing you do is all some calculated part of your master plan, isn't it?"

"Oh, that's not true," she said as she picked up the paper cups on the glass to clean underneath. "One time, me and this guy I had feelings for were in front of a live bomb set to go off within seconds. I kissed him suddenly and it turned out it wasn't even a bomb. Then I swore to myself I would never ever kiss him again."

Chuck smiled brightly. "And how'd that work out?"

"Not too well," she told him. Chuck put his hand over hers to stop her and she looked into his eyes. Standing on her toes she planted a kiss on his lips that promised many more to come. Halfway through the kiss, though, Chuck started laughing. "What?" Sarah asked sounding somewhat put-off.

Chuck continued laughing. "Nothing, just… You're a Nerd Herder," he laughed.

Sarah scoffed and punched his shoulder. "Shut up! You're not allowed to laugh at me, since you have to be my mentor from now on."

"Oh, man, that's right," he said dramatically. "I actually have to try and teach you the stuff, huh?"

"Uh, yeah, _no_," she deadpanned. "You will make it look like you're teaching me and I will sit around and listen. My job is to stare at your cute butt every time you have to crawl under a desk to fix a computer."

"Can we switch jobs?"

"Nope."

Chuck pouted adorably and said in a small voice, "Okay. I guess I should go, then…"

Sarah tried to keep the corners of her mouth from rising but she couldn't. "Hey, how did you explain me not being there for the first briefing?"

Chuck tried avoiding eye contact as he said, "Oh, um, you know…"

Sarah's happy expression dropped. "What did you say."

"I told them that you were, uh, out… buyingtampons." Chuck immediately went into the Morgan position and Sarah whipped her washcloth as his head. She was absolutely fuming.

"I can't believe you!"

"Sarah…"

"Go."

"But Sarah—"

"I said go, Chuck! We'll talk about this later. When I don't want to rip your head off."

Chuck slumped and walked out of the store, the bell on the door being the only indication he had left. Sarah must have picked up the habit from Chuck because she couldn't remember ever having cleaned those counters with such force.

After spending an hour wiping down counters she was finally calm enough to realize she was being ridiculous. Yes, he screwed up and yes, he is an idiot for that but it didn't call for her to throw things at him and banish him from the building. Technically he _had_ listened to her. It was fifteen minutes into his lunch break and there had still been no sight of him, making her feel even worse. Sucking up her own pride, she pulled out her cell phone and sent him a text.

"_I'm sorry… Makeup sex and a sandwich?"_

Her ploy to bring him in didn't work since she got nothing in reply. Now she thought he was the one overreacting. So what if she'd yelled at him? What kind of guy turns that down? Sarah was embarrassing herself the way she kept eying her phone to see if he'd texted her back. Maybe she wasn't as good as she thought. He had always seemed to enjoy it; maybe she was misinterpreting things.

Suddenly the thoughts in her head came to a halt as a tall lanky guy sprinted up to the glass door and yanked it open before rushing in. Sarah smiled wide as she watched him move towards her.

"I'm sorry," he said as he walked quickly.

"Me, too," she told him.

Their lips smashed together and Sarah wrapped her arms around his neck. Chuck bent down and picked her up off the floor, leading to her wrapping her legs around his lower back and locking her ankles. Chuck pressed her back up against the wall and continued to kiss her. It wasn't until Sarah broke the kiss and suggested the bed in Castle that they moved locations. The eye scanner was a challenge because Chuck was struggling to keep focused while Sarah stood behind him running her hands under his shirt and anywhere else they could reach. Finally they made it safely down and found their way to the rooms in the back of Castle. Entering the fake bedroom, Chuck and Sarah fell on the bed in a tangle of limbs.

l ll l ll l

Sarah and Chuck lay on their backs staring up at the white ceiling in the bedroom in Castle. Their heads were pressed against each other and Sarah had her arm closest to him across his chest and her hand cupping the far side of his face.

Sarah shut her eyes and swallowed. "I don't think I'll ever get used to how amazing doing that with you is," she breathed. She turned her head to his and pulled him in closer so she could place a soft kiss on his cheek.

Chuck smiled lazily. "Right back at you," he drawled before putting his hand over hers and stroking her fingers.

She smiled slyly and said, "Maybe we should fight more often."

Chuck sighed and didn't sound as happy as she did. "I'm sure we won't have any trouble with that."

She pulled her hand away and sat up against the headboard, keeping the sheets wrapped around her chest. "What's that supposed to mean?"

He sighed once more and sat up next to her. "Nothing, just… We're going to be spending practically every second of every day together from now on. We're bound to drive each other crazy once in a while."

"But I like spending time with you," Sarah pouted, not realizing she was even doing it.

"And I like spending time with you, but the best part of my day has always been when I get to see you. If every part of my day is the best part of my day, then really I have no best part of the day." Chuck was having a hard time looking into her eyes.

Sarah looked down at the sheets on the bed. "I understand," she said, sounding like a little kid who had just been told they had to leave the playground. "So what are we going to do? I don't want to end up hating each other. I love you but I'll admit sometimes you frustrate me more than anyone in the world."

He laughed quietly. "Yeah, well," he said, "I don't have to stay in the car anymore. I'm a big boy now."

"I know," Sarah said suggestively, motioning with her eyes to his concealed groin.

"Will you focus for one second?" he said incredulously. Sarah rolled her eyes playfully.

She sat up scooted around to face him. "Okay, sweetie, we already work together. And it works out great. This is no different. While we have a professional spy relationship, the whole point of me working at the Buy More is for us to have a romantic relationship. If you need space, just play video games with Morgan. I'll find something else to do." Sarah held his hand in hers. "I'm sure we'll be fine."

"I love you," he told her, making sure she really understood.

"I know you do," she said truthfully. "That's why this is going to work."

Chuck squeezed her hand and leaned in to kiss her. He had a strong feeling that he'd spend every day never getting tired of kissing her. There was no falling out of love with Sarah Walker.

She sat up a little straighter and announced her idea. "Let's make a promise, right now, to not fight with each other because of this."

"Promise," Chuck said, holding out his outstretched pinky.

Sarah looked at him not knowing if he was actually serious or not but she complied and hooked her pinky with his.

"Now that that's settled…" Sarah said, removing the sheets around her and giving Chuck and eyeful, "I believe I owe you an afterglow sandwich."

"You know all of my weaknesses," he said with a smile.

"Yup," she replied as she got out of the bed. "Including the one on your neck right under your jaw."

"Which one is that?" he asked, pretending to be clueless.

Sarah had a seductive smile on her face as she crawled back over the bed to reach him on her hands and knees. "This one," she purred before placing a kiss right on his favorite spot. Chuck used this opportunity to grab the back of her thigh and pull her so that she was practically curled up against his chest. Sarah shrieked of laughter at the sudden gesture and put her hand on his torso to balance herself on his lap. Nuzzling her face into his neck, she mumbled, "Very sneaky, Agent Bartowski," before lightly nipping him. Before dating her, Chuck had never experienced anything as amazing as holding a naked Sarah Walker in his arms. Hell, he'd never even imagined such a feeling existed. Chuck looked down and pushed her hair out of her face. Sarah traced her finger along his collarbone. She dropped her playful attitude and replaced it with a look of vulnerability, making Chuck tighten his arms around her wanting to protect her from everything bad in the world. "No one has ever looked at me the same way you do," she said quietly, meeting his gaze with one of her own.

Sarah was hurt to see him smile at something so candid. Then she realized what he was thinking as he started singing, "'Cause no one… is ever gonna love you more than I do…" Sarah broke out in laughter, recognizing the indie song he had a habit for playing at night before bed.

"Oh, my God, you're unbelievable," she sighed in an amused tone, moving away from the position he held her in.

Chuck pouted obnoxiously. "Come on, Skinny Love, what happened here?"

"Shut up!" she laughed from the bedside as she collected her clothes strewn over the floor.

He gestured to his chest and innocently said, "Don't make me a target." He had to dodge the pillow she threw at his head.

"You are so annoying, I can't even tell you how much you drive me crazy."

Chuck smiled and snapped his fingers rhythmically. "Oh, can you tell, I can't even explain," he sang.

Sarah decided that the worst thing to do would be to encourage him, so she focused on getting dressed. Changing the subject, she said, "Can I borrow one of your sweatshirts? It's cold down here."

"Well, it takes more than fucking someone you don't know to keep warm," he replied.

"The thing is, Chuck, I do know you."

"Like whispering you know me. You know me…" Sarah clenched her fists and screamed with her mouth closed out of pure frustration. She wrenched open the closet door that served as the room's exit and stormed out of there. Chuck called behind her, "Don't look back in anger!" before she slammed the door behind her.

l ll l ll l ll l

_Next chapter: Sarah's first day as a member of the Nerd Herd._

_Songs Chuck quoted (in order):_

_"No One's Gonna Love You" – Band of Horses (Chuck vs. The Nemesis)  
"Skinny Love" – Bon Iver (Chuck vs. The Break Up)  
"Don't Make Me A Target" – Spoon (Chuck vs. The Helicopter)  
"Can You Tell" – Ra Ra Riot (Chuck vs. The Gravitron)  
"Keep Yourself Warm" – Frightened Rabbit (Chuck vs. The Fat Lady)  
"3 Rounds and a Sound" – Blind Pilot (Chuck vs. The Ring)  
"Don't Look Back In Anger" – Oasis (Chuck vs. The Alma Mater)_

_All these songs have over 400 plays on my iTunes due to being in my Chuck playlist so that was a pretty fun scene to write. Reviews are greatly appreciated._


	2. Chapter 2

_Thank you for the big response, it made it much easier to finish this chapter. _

l ll l ll l

The next morning when their alarm clock went off, Sarah had enough energy saved up to turn it off herself. She rolled over and kissed her boyfriend's nose. Chuck put his hand on her hip and smiled.

"Ready for your first day?"

"Doubtful," she sighed, "Very doubtful."

"You've got nothing to worry about," he told her. "I'll be there every step of the way. I also will make sure you're never near Jeff and Lester for extended periods of time."

Sarah laughed at his last sentence. "My hero."

"Saving beautiful damsels in distress store wide," he joked.

Sarah leaned over with a smile on her face and kissed him on the lips. Chuck slid his fingers through her hair, pressing her into him. She had just slipped her tongue between his lips when her phone on the nightstand started vibrating loudly.

"Hm… no…" she whined as her forehead pressed against his.

"I'm not going anywhere," he said, persuading her to answer it.

Sarah huffed and rolled over to pick up her cellphone. Beckman's perky face glared up at her. "Yes, General?" she greeted. "…Okay, what for?" Chuck watched as Sarah's eyes lit up with humor. "Yes, General I understand." Sarah listened for a few more seconds. "Right away." She barely had time to hang up the phone before turning to Chuck. "You are never going to believe this!"

"What?" he said.

Sarah sat up on her knees out of excitement. "Well, I'm working at the Buy More now, so there's no one working at Orange Orange but we still need someone there to get to Castle and Beckman is making Casey work there!" It took a lot of effort for Chuck to follow along with her story but once he found out what she was so amused by he started laughing hysterically.

After a minute spent trying to breath, Chuck asked, "That's amazing. But wait, why'd she call you?"

A scary smile grew on her lips and she said, "Because I get to train him."

"This just gets better and better," he laughed.

Sarah patted her hand on his chest. "Time to get up, we have a half hour to get there and I don't want to miss a second of this."

"Agreed," Chuck said as he pulled off the covers and placed his feet on the hardwood floor.

"Oh, crap," he heard her say.

Chuck turned around to see her standing there in her powder blue lace bra and boy shorts. "What's wrong?"

"I just realized I don't have anything to change into. Don't I have to wear a uniform or something?" Sarah put her hands on her hips and it was getting really difficult for Chuck to focus.

"Oh," he said as he wiped his hand over his eyes, "Um, yeah, Morgan, uh, told me the dress code is pretty…" Chuck trailed off when she stretched her arms over her head and leaned back, pushing her chest out for him to see. "…Flexible." Chuck checked his watch, which also doubled as the only thing keeping him a functioning member of society. "We've got plenty of time to figure that out before we have to be at the Buy More. Just throw something on and we can go. I'll go make some breakfast, you want first shower?"

"Yes, please," she sang, already walking to the bathroom.

Chuck followed her out of the bedroom and couldn't unglue his eyes from her body. Sarah turned around and caught him staring. With a tiny smile she said, "You know, Chuck, all you have to do is ask…"

Chuck quit trying to look innocent and looked into her blue eyes to see if she meant it. Finally putting on the huge smile she fell in love with, he said, "What do you think about killing two birds with one stone?"

"I think you're going to need to get rid of those boxers and come keep me company."

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"You're late," Casey grunted after Chuck held the door open for Sarah to walk in.

"I'm sorry, Colonel, I didn't realize you held your frozen yogurt expertise so high up on your priority scale," Sarah rebutted. She then looked him up and down. "Cute." She was referring to his white shorts that ended above his knees and the orange polo tucked in. It also may have had something to do with the white visor embroidered with the Orange Orange logo Velcro-ed around his head. Though, what really brought the whole outfit together was his signature black "Team Death" shoes that he wore on his feet.

"You look like an employee at Club Med," Chuck quipped, craning his neck back in awkwardness. "You look like you're about to try and sell me a juicer."

"Can it, Bartowski, before I put your head through a juicer," Casey snarled.

"Okay, Casey, over here is the frozen yogurt machine," Sarah said patronizingly as she walked over to the machine behind the counter looking like a model on Wheel of Fortune. "All you do is pull down the lever, and the yogurt comes out. You want to give it a try and make sure you understand?"

"Walker, I hold a strong belief that men shouldn't hit women but for you I'll make an exception. You better not talk to me like that for the rest of this." Sarah smiled knowing she had successfully pushed his buttons.

"Hey, that's the Intersect's girlfriend you're talking to," Chuck spoke up from where he had sat at one of the tables.

"That's okay, sweetie," Sarah said to her boyfriend, still staring at Casey. "John knows all too well that I can more than hold my own against him."

"You got lucky," he growled, thinking back to their painful fight in the old Weinerlicious.

"Care to try again, yogurt boy?" she challenged.

"Get on with the lesson, Walker, I don't have time for this."

Sarah smirked. She'd had her fun. But, it also couldn't hurt for Chuck to have his. "Okay, Casey, field situation. Chuck is a customer. Chuck, order something."

Chuck walked up and said, "Yeah, uh, I'll get a lemon frozen yogurt with raspberries."

With a grimace on his face the entire time, Casey grabbed a cup, filled it with lemon yogurt, and then scooped fresh raspberries onto it.

"Do you know what kind of cows the yogurt comes from?" Chuck asked obnoxiously.

"What the hell kind of question is that?"

Chuck stuck out his bottom lip. "Were the berries locally grown? Because I've heard that's better for the economy."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Ring it up, Casey."

Casey followed the simple buttons on the screen to type in the order. "That'll be $2.75… _sir_."

Chuck stuck up his pointer finger. "Oh, you know what? Can I add sprinkles on that, too?"

Casey grunted. "Rainbow sprinkles, I'm assuming?"

"I don't think I like what you're insinuating. Are you insulting a customer?" Chuck said angrily. "I'd like to speak with a manager!"

"Here's your manager," Casey threatened as he lifted his fist. Sarah jumped in and grabbed his arm before any pain could be inflicted on her significant other.

"Uh, Chuck? How about I meet up with you at the Buy More?" she said, trying to calm the situation.

"Sure," he said. Chuck started walking do the door but then spun around. "Oh, but one last thing." He pointed to Casey. "Can you tell me where I can find the jet skis?" Casey growled and Chuck left the shop audibly laughing as Sarah hung her head.

After the bell had rung signaling Chuck's departure, Casey turned the focus onto Sarah. "So you're a geek now."

"I think they prefer the term "nerd"," she corrected.

"I'm just glad I don't have to be there when you see what a normal day at work is for your boy toy."

Sarah narrowed her eyes at him. "What are you talking about?"

"Your boyfriend is a main attraction over at that Nerd Herd station." Casey picked up a red gummy bear and bit off its head. "Although, I guess you won't get to see any of that, now that I think about it."

Sarah crossed her arms. "And why is that?"

"Have you seen yourself? You're like a blonde, leggy girl-repellent." Sarah gave him a questioning look and he tilted his head to the side. "Do I have to spell it out for you? Alright. You're intimidating to other women. No girl in her right mind is going to try flirting with a guy when you're within seeing distance. Except probably… Carina or someone like that." Casey slid over the cup of frozen yogurt Chuck had ordered, knowing that he had purposely gotten Sarah's favorite. Sarah took it and grabbed a spoon for it. "Then again, if girls like that walked in often I would have put up much more of a fight when I was told I got reassigned to this place."

Sarah ate a raspberry off the top and then looked back down at the cup. "What am I doing? I have to go get ready."

"Walker, where the hell are you going?" Casey asked as she walked to the freezer in the back.

Sarah turned around and motioned with her hands. "Morgan has the master bedroom and Chuck's closet wasn't big enough for two people so I moved some of my stuff to Castle." Casey shaking his head at her wasn't enough to change her mind and she went downstairs to get changed.

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"Hey, man," Morgan said as he walked up to Chuck. "Where's Sarah?"

Chuck laughed all over again thinking of where she was. "Sarah's over at Orange Orange training their new employee."

Morgan's face lit up with understanding. "Oh, my God, Chuck, can we please go get frozen yogurt for lunch today?"

"Um, try everyday," Chuck laughed.

"I can't believe I forgot Casey was leaving the Buy More. Aside from how amazing him running the fro-yo place is he was technically this store's number one salesman. Big Mike will not be happy." Morgan then saw said manager enter the store and he bolted away trying to look busy.

Chuck was left standing alone, so instead of following in Morgan's footsteps he went to put his bag in his locker. He looked at himself in the tiny mirror on his locker door and tried centering his tie. He then quickly gave up on that task, knowing no matter how good a job he did Sarah would still fix it for him when she got there.

"Hi, Chuck," a voice said from behind him. Chuck quickly turned around at the sound of his name.

Chuck furrowed his brown and cocked his head to the side. "Hi… Fernando…?" Chuck was pretty sure he had never spoken to him before.

Fernando stepped up uncomfortably close in Chuck's personal space, not realizing how awkward it was making Chuck feel. "I heard from Mr. Grimes that your girlfriend, Sarah Walker, is working here and today is her first day."

"That… is true," Chuck said with a nervous smile, stuffing his hands in his pants pockets and leaning backwards.

"Very good," Fernando said strangely, before pivoting on the spot and walking out of the room.

Chuck watched him go, not knowing what had just happened. "That was weird," he whispered to himself, shaking his head.

Just then the lockers swung away from the wall and Sarah stepped out of the secret base. She was wearing black high heels, a generously unbuttoned white short sleeve blouse, the signature Nerd Herd grey tie loosely around her neck, hoop earrings, smoky eye makeup, and a black mini skirt that could put Anna Wu's to shame.

Chuck fought to be able to produce words. "_Wow_," he finally choked out, in awe of her appearance.

Sarah smiled and did a small twirl for him, her blonde waves moving around her face at the motion. "You like?"

"Do you even have to ask?" he said, appreciating her from head to toe. "My god, Sarah, you always look stunning but this… this is…"

"Stop it," she laughed, "You're making me blush."

"That's nothing compared to what you're doing to me just standing here." Sarah raised her eyebrows and punched him in the shoulder.

"I'll let it slide since we're alone, but you can't talk to me like that in front of everyone else, okay? I can't believe I'm even saying this to you. What happened to your aversion to any public displays of affection?" she asked with her hands on her hips. She then spotted his crooked tie and took it upon herself to fix it.

Chuck smiled somewhat apologetically but he knew he was in the clear. "That was before I knew you'd be looking like that in public."

Despite her effort not to, a smile broke out on her face as she tightened his Windsor knot. Even if he was blatantly ogling her, it was a good feeling knowing she could have such an effect on the guy she was madly in love with. Sarah pressed his tie flat against his chest and reached out and took his hand in hers. "Come on, let's go," she said as she walked towards the sales floor. She didn't expect for him to pull her back. Sarah turned around and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Are you crazy? You can't go out there," he said. "How are you going to explain your miraculous arrival at the store?"

Sarah shrugged. "I'll just say they didn't notice when I walked in."

Chuck scoffed at that idea. "Uh, yeah, "didn't notice"? Really, honey, I think astronauts in space are pitching tents in their suits right now."

"That's nice," she said sarcastically in response to her boyfriend's crudeness. "So what would you like me to do, go all the way around just to walk in the front door?" Sarah studied his face long enough before saying, "Oh, my God, that's exactly what you want me to do!"

"It's the only logical option," he reasoned.

"Ugh," she sighed, debating whether or not to comply before finally going to the lockers. "You suck," she said, pointing at him. She then opened the secret door and walked through, shutting it behind her.

Chuck stuck his tongue out at her and walked to the Nerd Herd desk once she left. He sat down in his chair facing the front of the store and was less than thrilled to find Lester leaning against the counter waiting for him with a creepy smile on his face.

"Charles," he started, "my friend, Fernando, tells me good news. There is a beautiful, albeit… _intimidating_ woman joining our squad, is there not?" Chuck didn't acknowledge his inquisition. "She'll be working side by side with yours truly and sparks could begin to fly. All's fair in love and war, Charles. May the best man win," he challenged, holding out his hand in a way so Chuck wasn't sure if he was expected to shake, kiss, or caress it. He decided on none of the above. Chuck just stared at it with a confused expression and missed Lester looking to the entrance and opening his eyes so wide they almost popped out of his head. Chuck heard a loud thud and turned to see that Fernando had fainted and was receiving no help at all due to everyone being so distracted. Chuck didn't have to turn around to know what was making everyone that way. Lester looked like he may or may not have wet himself and he ended up running off shouting, "I surrender! You win! You win!"

Chuck finally made the decision to get another eyeful of his apparently drop-dead gorgeous girl, if Fernando's current position on the floor was any indication. Chuck was even more taken aback than the first time. That aisle down through the center of the store was like a runway for supermodels. He could have sworn there were some hot-chick motion sensor fans hidden around that path because Sarah looked like she was in the middle of a _MAXIM_ photo shoot. She walked directly up to him and smirked.

"Miss me?"

"Trust me, _no one_ missed that entrance."

Sarah pressed her palms on the desk and looked over at the strange human-like thing on the floor. "Is someone going to help them?"

Chuck swiveled around in his chair and looked. "I'm sure he'll be fine. You probably shouldn't be around when he wakes up, though. He might go into a coma."

"Bartowski!" a loud voice yelled over the commotion on the sales floor. Chuck knew it could only be one person and turned around to see Big Mike standing in his office doorway. "Get you and your lady friend's behinds in here!"

"Coming, Big Mike," Chuck replied unenthusiastically. He stood up and looked at Sarah, widening his eyes and holding his hands together in front of him. "I'm assuming you're my lady friend," he said to her.

"Better be," she said before pushing off the counter and walking to the manager's office.

Chuck walked in after Sarah and took a seat next to her in front of Big Mike's desk. The large man was waiting for them with his fingers crossed on his desk. "First thing's first," he started before staring down the other male in the room. "_Chuck_." Chuck smiled nervously, knowing he would most likely not be getting good news. "You mind telling me why our number one salesman is now scooping out frozen yogurt to teenage girls across the parking lot?"

"Casey, uh... Casey needed a change, I guess. The Orange Orange has much more flexible hours, and… yeah." Chuck trailed off not knowing where he was going.

"Okay then, if Orange Orange is so great," Big Mike turned his head to stare at the blonde woman across from him, "why are you here?"

Sarah opened her mouth not knowing what to say exactly. Making eye contact with Chuck, she then turned back to her new boss. "…Better pay," she answered. "Plus, I came here for him, too," she added, placing her hand on Chuck's leg like a loving and devoted girlfriend who was in no way under direct orders from the United States government.

"Do you know anything about computers?" Big Mike asked her straight out.

Sarah smiled nervously much like Chuck had. "They… compute things…" she said as vaguely as possible.

The man's expression didn't change for several more seconds. "Good enough," he finally said. He then opened up a drawer and took out a sheet of paper looking like a contract. "Both of you have to sign this."

"What, ah, what is it?" Chuck asked for the both of them.

"Corporate says couples have to sign this thing. I don't know what it says. You know I hate reading things."

"That I do, Big Mike," Chuck said before reaching out and grabbing the sheet. Chuck skimmed it and reached for a pen in his shirt pocket to sign, but was cut off by Sarah snatching it out of his hands. She took her time going through everything on there.

"What constitutes as 'inappropriate behavior in the work place'?" she asked, that being the thing that stuck out most to her, naturally.

Big Mike looked at the two of them and said, "Look. Just try not to get caught. Some kid finds you two fooling around in the Home Theater, tells his mother; I got to deal with that. I don't like dealing with people. Make my life easy, and keep it in your pants enough to not make me fire you. Got it?"

"Yes, sir," Sarah said with a faint smile, confident in her sneaking around abilities after ten years as a spy. She then looked at Chuck and nodded, showing her approval of the contract. He handed her his pen and let her sign first. After he signed his name he handed it back to Big Mike.

"Anything else?" Chuck asked.

"Yeah," he said, "get back to work! I don't pay you to sit around on your asses all day."

Sarah narrowed her eyes. "You were the one—"

"Just go," Chuck advised, already standing with his hands on her shoulders. She was going to have to get used to Big Mike's unique managing skills, or lack thereof. Sarah followed her boyfriend's advice and left the room without another word.

Once they were out, she asked, "So what exactly does 'getting back to work' entail?"

Chuck looked over at the Nerd Herd desk and saw things had yet to calm down there. Knowing it was probably for the best if she steered clear of that area for a while, he reached down to hold onto her hand. "Are you familiar with our home theater?" he asked, leading her to the private room.

Sarah smiled brightly and shook her head as she walked beside him. "I can't say that I am."

"Oh," he started, "Well it has a state of the art entertainment system, as well as extremely comfortable couches, dark shades, and a lock on the door…"

l ll l ll l

"What the—where's the chick?"

Casey scowled at the two teenage skateboarders that had walked into Orange Orange, trying to intimidate them into bursting into tears on the spot. He wished he wasn't wearing this fucking visor. "Are you a friend of hers?" he asked monotonously.

One kid with a Hurley cap tilted at an angle on his head looked at his other friend and back to Casey. "Yeah, man." The kid stuck his chest out a little more trying to boost himself up. "…She's my girlfriend."

Casey smiled like a maniac. "Well then you should be able to just ask her yourself."

"Yeah, but, uh…" the kid stalled to think of a response. "I was planning on surprising her."

"She must have forgotten to tell you she works at the Buy More now," Casey snarled. "Minor mistake, I'm sure."

That's when the boy's eyes lit up with recognition. "Wait a second. Didn't _you_ use to work there? You're the asshole that tackled me in the parking lot!"

Pleased with himself, Casey said, "And you're the jackass who thought he could outrun me."

"Come on, man, let's go," the kid, Dov, said to his friend. "Before he starts foaming at the mouth."

"But I wanted a frozen yogurt," his friend whined.

"Forget the yogurt, man, I'll get you a fucking sandwich. Then we can check out that hot brunette that works there before hitting up the Buy More."

Casey crossed his arms and stood in a wide stance with one corner of his mouth curled up in a grin. Once the boys were out of sight he queued up the video surveillance of the Buy More on the register's touch screen and waited.

l ll l ll l

"Excuse me," a middle-aged woman said walking up to the assistant manager. "I came here to get my husband a new stereo system for our entertainment room for his birthday, but the Home Theater area seems to be locked. Can you unlock it for me?"

Morgan turned around and straightened his vest. "Let me see what I can do, ma'am." Morgan walked over to the Home Theater and could tell the woman was following him. He went to the center window of the room and smiled at the woman before reaching out with a closed fist and knocking on the window.

_Knock. Knock, knock knock. Knock._

Chuck and Sarah had been making out on the couch for several minutes when they heard the knocking. Sarah was straddling his lap with her thighs on either side of his hips and was using her quick fingers to unbutton his shirt. Chuck had one hand tangled in her long blonde hair and the other was working on undoing her bra clasp. At the sharp sounds on the glass Sarah parted from his lips, sat up and looked in the direction they had come from. Chuck sat up and put his hands on her waist so that he could keep kissing her. Reaching out his hand to the side, he knocked back on the window.

_Knock. Knock._

Sarah pulled away again and panted, "Who was that?"

"Morgan," he told her before kissing her throat. Sarah's eyelids dropped at his touch and she raked her fingers up through his short brown curls. She was less than pleased by his mouth moving away from her, but he then explained, "We have a knock to see if someone's using the theater." He kissed her bare shoulder. "Don't worry about it." She could feel him smile against her neck once he finally unhooked her bra. Sarah then relaxed into his touch and pushed him by the shoulders back down to the couch, giving in to him completely.

When he heard the responding knock, Morgan pursed his lips and spun around on his heels to face the customer. Awkwardly punching his fist into his open palm, he said, "You know, ma'am, a stereo system is nice and all, but what your husband would _really_ love… is a brand new big screen TV!" He motioned her over to the television wall. "Which just so happen to be over in this area here."

l ll l ll l

When they had finally found Sarah's earring wedged in between a couch cushion, the two of them walked out of the theater room together looking fully sated. Sarah had her arms holding on to his right bicep and she leaned her head in to place a loving kiss on his shoulder. She was feeling much more open to the idea of working now and followed obediently as he walked them over to the Nerd Herd station. Once they got there he said, "I'm going to go grab some water from the break room, you need anything?"

"Water sounds good," she replied. Chuck gave her a parting smile before leaving her alone at the desk. Sarah pursed her lips and sat down in a desk chair, crossing her legs and observing everything going on in the store as she waited for him to return. She had to admit it was much more eventful than being by herself all day at Orange Orange counting the seconds until Chuck visited her during his lunch break. She smiled thinking of Colonel Casey suffering in his current predicament. Then again, Casey probably enjoyed not talking to anyone. He wasn't exactly what one would call a social butterfly.

A sinking feeling in her gut started growing as she saw a man walking towards her with a camera in hand. She looked around and realized she was the only Nerd Herder in sight. She made the mistake of making eye contact with the man and he smiled at her as he got close. Sarah responded with a tight-lipped smile, failing to hide the fear in her eyes.

"Hello," the man said, leaning on the counter. Sarah just smiled. "I was, uh, hoping someone could take a look at my camera. It seems to be shutting itself off randomly in the middle of using it."

Sarah had no professional opinion on the matter whatsoever, so she went with simply saying, "That's not good."

The guy laughed lightly and said, "No, it isn't." He held the camera out to her slightly. "Do you think you could check it out?"

Sarah was actually somewhat inclined to help him. With a decent body and a nice enough haircut, she'd have expected an absolute pig out of the guy. But he hadn't looked away from her eyes since talking to her. The only other guy she'd ever met who did that was, well, Chuck. And Casey, but Casey was asexual when it came to her so he didn't count. Sarah reached out and took the camera gingerly.

"Sure." Sarah pressed down the power button and the camera sprung to life with the lens popping out and the screen lighting up. "So, um, when does it shut off?"

"When I try to take a picture. It flashes and then turns off. It's pretty annoying," he said.

"I can imagine," she said looking down at it in her hands.

What happened next confirmed her earlier belief that Chuck Bartowski broke the mold when it came to treating women right.

"I can show you, if you want," he cut in. "Here, let me try taking a picture of you." Sarah Walker was no amateur when it came to recognizing pre-meditated dialect. Anything from a partner's voice over the phone while being held at gunpoint, to a nosy sister strategically trying to find out about you and her brother's relationship. Sarah's face dropped and lost all faith in the male gender before she looked away and saw her nerd walking over with two bottles of water. She signaled to him her distress with her eyes and he picked up the pace.

Ignoring the man staring down her top, Sarah narrowed her eyes and sarcastically smiled. "Actually, I think my boyfriend can probably figure it out. He's much better at this stuff than I am."

She saw the guy's face drop even faster than hers had and she became content once more. Chuck walked up next to her and she stood up to meet him. Holding a water bottle in her hand, she kissed him on the mouth and patted him once on the chest before taking it out of his hands. "Take over for me, baby?"

Chuck wasn't used to that pet name being used outside of a cover, so he knew she was purposely playing it up because of whatever this customer had done.

"Of course, sweetheart," he said adoringly, "Anything for you." The disgust on the man's face grew. Chuck turned and looked at him. "What seems to be the problem?"

"His camera isn't working, babe, can you fix it?" she said in a ditsy high-pitched voice.

"Sure, what's wrong with it?"

The guy stuttered and said, "Oh, um, it's nothing, man, I can figure it out…"

"It shuts off every time he takes a picture," Sarah pouted, leaning against Chuck's torso.

"Oh really?" Chuck said. "Well, let's try it out." The man tried reaching for the camera but Chuck got there first. Positioning it in his hands and lifting it to his face he said, "Smile," before taking a picture of the guy. The flash went off in his face and captured his less than thrilled visage. As far as Chuck could tell, the camera was still on. "Seems to have fixed itself," he said knowingly, handing the man back his camera.

The guy smiled awkwardly. "Oh, yeah. Guess you have the magic touch," he laughed forcefully.

"He sure does," Sarah purred, running her hand over Chuck's abs and shoving it in the man's face that he would never ever get with her.

The guy coughed uncomfortably and said, "Thanks," before turning and head out the sliding doors.

"Nice guy," Sarah said sarcastically.

"I'm sorry about that," Chuck said, putting his palm on the small of her back and rubbing it in a circle.

Sarah turned her head up to look at him. "You have nothing to be sorry for, Chuck. It's not your fault there are so many dirtbags in the world."

"I just feel bad you have to deal with that kind of stuff every day," he said adorably.

"Don't feel bad for me," she told him, lightly kissing him. "I get to come home to you every day, don't I?"

Chuck had that boyish smile on his face and she ran her fingers through his curls. "It's still not okay, though. You shouldn't be objectified like that. It's just wrong; you deserve better." Sarah could only shrug, but Chuck still seemed bothered by it.

They continued manning the desk together and Sarah simply deflected everything to Chuck whenever she was approached with a question regarding anything technological. Many of the male customers, who significantly outnumbered the females, snuck peeks at Sarah, and while she thought nothing of it, she could tell Chuck was growing unhappier by the second. He'd even told one particular guy eying her that the slight buzzing noise in his cellphone meant he needed a new one entirely, costing the man an extra hundred bucks. Sarah wouldn't have noticed anything wrong except for the fact that a woman had come in with the same problem and Chuck had fixed it in ten seconds flat.

She could tell Chuck's patience was hanging by a thread and that's why her panic level tripled when she saw the two teenage boys walk in finishing off sandwiches from Lou's deli. She recognized one from their daily visits to Orange Orange in the summer and remembered them to be less than mature.

"Uh, Chuck?" she said, turning to her boyfriend. "Could you go get me a cup of coffee from the break room?"

"In a minute," he said curtly. She'd never gotten that response from him before and was shocked by it, but then saw his eyes locked on the front of the store and realized it was too late. He'd seen them. Sarah would have taken it upon herself to leave but was too afraid of what could happen without her supervision. She had had many encounters with the one kid, Dov, but the other one was new to her. That made her even more nervous. Usually when Dov brought along a new friend it was so he could show off and make it look like he had an in with her. It had yet to work out for him and she was surprised he still hadn't learned his lesson. She watched Chuck as intently as he was watching them and cringed when she heard her name.

"Hey, Sarah," Dov said obnoxiously. He had learned her name from her old Weinerlicious name tag. "Looks like you just can't get away from those sexy uniforms."

She could see Chuck's nails digging into the arms of the chair he was in.

"Can I help you?" she asked coldly.

"Nah," he said, shaking his head. "I just thought I should let you know that there's something on your shirt. Don't worry, I'll get it off for you." Sarah got ready to step away from his outreaching hand aiming for her breast, but didn't expect Chuck in a split second reaching out and grabbing Dov's wrist before delivering a sickening punch to his face. Dov's head flung back and he crumpled to the floor, bringing his hands up to his face as he writhed on the ground. Sarah's expression turned to immediate surprise.

"Chuck!"

"BARTOWSKI!"

With his hand still balled into a fist, Chuck's head whipped around and he looked at his horrified girlfriend and outraged boss.

"…Oh, Crap."

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Across the parking lot an NSA agent stood looking at the Orange Orange cash register monitor with a smirk on his face.

He could get used to this arrangement.

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_Please review! It lets me know what I'm doing right/wrong or whether or not I'm spewing out crap._


	3. Chapter 3

_Hi. This is Chuck vs. The Mini Skirt. Here's some stuff you might need to know or maybe you just forgot…_

"I just thought I should let you know that there's something on your shirt. Don't worry, I'll get it off for you." Sarah got ready to step away from his outreaching hand aiming for her breast, but didn't expect Chuck in a split second reaching out and grabbing Dov's wrist before delivering a sickening punch to his face.

"Chuck!"

"BARTOWSKI!"

"…Oh, Crap."

l ll l ll l

Chuck sat in the uncomfortable chair under the uncomfortable gaze of Big Mike. The air was uncomfortably warm and he knew Big Mike used heat as an interrogation tactic. His tie was uncomfortably tight around his bobbing Adam's apple and his mouth was uncomfortably dry. There was an uncomfortable silence filling the air. All in all, it was an uncomfortable situation to be in.

He had been sitting like this for the past—Chuck checked his watch—eight minutes. Big Mike had yet to say a word other than "Sit," and he almost wished Sarah had been called in with him. She was like his very own protective force field. Absolutely nothing could happen to him when she was around. Unfortunately it had been only nine minutes since he had socked that guy in the face and in that one-minute grace period he hadn't had a chance to smooth things over with her. Right now he didn't have time to think about what to say to her, and instead was too distracted by the large man sitting across from him looking like he was imagining snapping his lanky frame in half. Finally Big Mike broke the silence.

"What in the hell happened out there, boy? This is the Buy More. You can't just go around punching people in the face for no reason."

""No reason?"" Chuck fought back, leaning out of his seat. "That guy made an attempt at sexual assault! On my girlfriend! He's lucky that's all he's got."

Big Mike furrowed his brow. "So all this," he said, motioning with his hands, "is about the girl? Is that what you're telling me?"

Chuck stuttered trying to think of a better explanation but before he could Big Mike was shouting in his face to the door. "Walker!" Chuck sunk down deeper in his chair at every click-clack of her high heels as she neared the manager's office for the second time that day. He had a feeling she was less than thrilled about the stunt he had pulled out there and sitting next to her without being able to talk to her about it was not something he was looking forward to. Chuck could feel when she walked into the room, like he always did, but he was too nervous to look at her. "Take a seat," the boss directed her.

Chuck was sitting in the seat closest to the door and so he could smell her shampoo as she swiftly walked past him. He had expected that as she walked behind him, but what he hadn't expected was her hand sliding along his shoulders comfortingly. Chuck shot his head up to look at her and was met with a tiny smile on her face meant to calm him down. It worked and he sat up a little straighter in his chair, ignoring that the smile hadn't reached her eyes.

Mike looked at Sarah. "Your boyfriend tells me that kid was trying to sexually harass one of my employees. Can you support this?"

Sarah knew what a cover-up sounded like and narrowed her eyes looking at Chuck and then Mike. "…Yes. I can. He tried to grab me and I was so helpless to defend myself that Chuck stepped in for me." Chuck immediately sensed a touch of sarcasm in her tone of voice but tabled that for another time and place.

"Very well then," Big Mike said, sounding pleased with her response. "It was a noble act of heroism, and in no way an unjustified act of jealousy-fueled violence. Got it?"

The two employees nodded their heads and were dismissed on the term that that was the story and they were sticking to it.

Walking out of the office, Chuck grabbed Sarah's arm as she walked away. "Hey, Sarah—"

"Not now, Chuck," she sighed without looking at him. She left him behind and he sighed in defeat as he watched her go.

"Hey there, champ," a voice said coming up from behind him. Chuck turned around and saw Morgan walking over. "That was quite the KO."

Chuck huffed and said, "Don't remind me." He watched as Sarah wouldn't even look in his direction and frowned. "Hey, buddy, do you think you could give Sarah and I the day off? I think we might need to get away from here." Chuck started walking away from the office with Morgan.

"Sure, man, no problem, take the whole week," he waved off.

Chuck's eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

Morgan laughed and shook his bearded head. "Are you kidding me? No, Big Mike would have my beard for that." Morgan then tripped on his shoes but rolled though it pretty well. "But, yeah, you can go, I'll just put Jeff and Lester on double-secret probation again to make them work harder. Maybe even Skip, too. Word travels fast around the mini strip. Sarah's first day, we've had more customers than we get in an entire week. Big Mike might even consider her for the next Buy More commercial. Imagine how many customers we'd get then. "Sarah Walker, real Buy More employee." Big bucks here, Chuck."

"Yeah," Chuck said, "That's going to be a 'no'."

"Think about it," Morgan advised.

Chuck ended their conversation by walking up to his less than talkative girlfriend. He came up to the Nerd Herd desk she had her back to and rang the service bell. Sarah turned around and her hair splayed out around her shoulders at the movement. Her helpful expression dropped at the sight of him.

"I have a surprise for you," he said with a smile. She didn't say anything and only looked at him. "I got us the day off. Turns out you were right about sucking up to Morgan."

Sarah smiled sadly and looked down. "I think you need it a lot more than I do."

Chuck leaned in to the point where she couldn't avoid his gaze. "Hey," he said to her, making her look at him again. "Remember what we said to each other before you kissed "that guy you had feelings for in front of a bomb"?"

Wanting him to tell her, she asked, "…What?"

Chuck smiled and reached out to hold her hands in his. She didn't resist. "I said, "I guess you just bring out the worst in me," and you said, "And you in me." Remember that?"

Sarah smiled softly. "Yeah."

"Well, today I guess you just brought out the worst in me," he said with a dimple in his cheek but then switched to a sincere expression. "I'm sorry." Sarah stared into his brown eyes looking back and forth between them. If she really thought about it, any other guy in the world probably would have snapped way sooner than he had... Sarah shook her head in disbelief. She hated herself for how quickly she forgave him about everything, but it was just so hard to stay mad at him. Sarah took the hands he was already holding on to and laced her fingers with his.

"Let's go home," she said quietly with a small smile.

The infectious Chuck Bartowski smile lit up on his face and Sarah quickly met his with one of her own.

l ll l ll l

Across the parking lot John Casey grunted in disgust. Just when things started to get interesting Walker had to prove herself once more as the love struck fool she was. It wasn't that he wanted them to be unhappy or anything. It was just so boring at the Orange Orange. Maybe Sarah liked it but Casey was not thrilled at the idea of cleaning the same counter six times a day knowing he was the only one to touch it. In reality, he was happier now that they were together. They were so annoying with those longing looks.

But still.

She could have at least slapped him.

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They drove home in a comfortable silence with Sarah gazing out the window. Chuck reached a red light and looked over at her. She looked so adorable.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked her.

Sarah sighed quietly. "Stuff."

"Oh, no way. Me, too," he joked.

Sarah turned her eyes in his direction and flashed him a quick closed-mouth smile before resuming her position looking out the window.

"…I love you," Chuck told her.

"I know."

Chuck's brow furrowed as he looked at her but had to go when he heard someone honking at him to pay attention to the green light. He accelerated and missed Sarah looking back at his bruised hand on the steering wheel.

His phone vibrated and not being one to text and drive, he said, "Hey, can you tell me what that says," handing his phone to her.

She took it and looked at the screen. "It's from Casey… "Nice work, Bartowski."" Sarah rolled her eyes and put the phone in the middle section between their seats.

Chuck didn't know how to react. He reached over and held her hand in his but winced a little from pain when he intertwined their fingers. Sarah ran her thumb over his hand lazily and the pain was quickly forgotten.

"It hurts?" she asked.

He nodded shakily and his eyes quickly glanced at her. "Kind of, yeah."

"Why did you do this to yourself, Chuck?"

Chuck swallowed hard and kept his eyes on the road. "…I thought I was doing it for you."

Sarah had grabbed her purse and pulled out a wet napkin to wipe some of the dried blood off his knuckles. There wasn't much but there was enough to make her wonder whose it was. "I can take care of myself," she said as she wiped his hand.

"So why didn't you?" he asked agitatedly, pulling his hand away. He gripped the steering wheel tighter and stared a hole through the road. Sarah sat there silently watching him, not having moved after his outburst.

Taking a deep breath, she calmly said, "Will you please let me clean off your hand?" Chuck scoffed and gave her back his bruised hand. Sarah's gentle fingers went back to taking care of it and she didn't speak for a while. Finally as her head was still facing down she softly said, "It's not that simple."

"Whatever, Sarah," he said dismissively.

Sarah felt her chest tighten and she put one hundred percent of her focus on his hand until they got home so as to not be aware of how hurtful he was being by not even listening to her.

Getting out of the car they were both silent. They stayed that way walking into their apartment and Chuck went and sat on the couch and turned on his Xbox. Sarah sighed as she watched him and walked to the kitchen. This was not at all how she imagined her first day going. She was tired, and she really just wanted her boyfriend to be happy right now for her sake. She decided to leave him to his games and went to their bedroom to change.

Chuck had been trying for the past twenty minutes to blow off steam by shooting down some enemies but the combination of his frantic mind as well as his injured hand only made him frustrated as he repeatedly lost. He just didn't get it. Sarah could have broken any one of those guys in half and yet she decided to just sit there and take it. How could she expect him to watch that and not say anything? She just had no idea the affect she had on people and it's been driving him crazy. She's only supposed to have that affect on him.

After being killed for what seemed like the billionth time, Chuck angrily started another game. Right as he was racing through the mountains on an ATV, the game paused. He would have thought that it was a glitch in the game, but he looked at the console's green ring and saw that two places were lit, indicating there was another controller being used. Turning around, he saw his girlfriend with the one Morgan had left on the table. She wasn't wearing anything besides a rolled-up pair of his boxers and a spaghetti strap. Her hair was let down and she had removed all of the makeup she'd had on at work. This was his favorite version of Sarah. It was his Sarah, no one else's.

He didn't restart the game and she lightly put the controller back on the table and sauntered over to where he was sitting. She smoothly maneuvered herself so that she was straddling his lap and facing him. With her arms around his neck, she leaned in and kissed him softly.

"I love you," she said quietly.

Chuck put his hands on her boxer-clad hips and sighed before a smile formed on his face. "It's been a while since I've heard that."

Sarah dropped her head onto his shoulder. Turning her face into his neck, she mumbled, "I'm sorry. I completely forgot about us today. I promise it won't happen again."

Chuck wrapped his arms around her frame and held her tightly. He kissed her head and said, "I know it won't."

"Can we just forget this day ever happened?" she said, puffing out a breath against his five o' clock shadow.

"No." Sarah lifted her head and looked at him. Chuck looked back at her. "How can we just forget it when it's just going to happen all over again tomorrow?"

"It won't, Chuck, I promise," she stressed.

Chuck removed his hands from her body and put them on the couch. "I know you won't be the same, but every guy that hits on you will."

"So _what_, Chuck?" she said, also taking her arms down and putting them on her thighs. "What do they matter? They have nothing to do with us. Just don't care about them."

Chuck scoffed, "Easy for you to say. Trust me, if you were in my position you would not feel the same."

Sarah laughed and said, "Yeah, I would…"

She had no idea how wrong she was.

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The next morning they both had been running late and were rushing to get to work on time.

"You ready?" Chuck said from the doorway.

"Coming, coming," Sarah said as she grabbed her purse and followed him out the door. Chuck watched her as they walked to the car. While yesterday she looked smoking hot, today she was just… Well, she was beautiful. Her hair was in a cute ponytail with her bangs sideswiped and instead of dark eye makeup it was light and made her blues eyes sparkle. Looking down, though, the mini skirt was still present. Chuck sighed. It was going to be another long day.

Chuck said he wanted to listen to the album he had just gotten and so they listened to the first three songs off of "High Violet" by The National on their way there. They arrived smoothly and walked hand-in-hand into the store while Chuck sang under his breath, "It's a terrible love and I'm walking with spiders…"

'_He really does have a great voice,'_ she thought absent-mindedly.

Seconds after the _swoosh_ noise of the sliding doors that they walked through, Morgan intercepted them on their way to the break room.

"Chuck!" he said breathlessly. "Thank god you're here."

Chuck looked at his watch and said, "Buddy, we're only four minutes late what could I have possibly missed?"

Morgan got a serious look on his face and put his hand on Chuck's shoulder. "We have an all day Puma situation."

Chuck froze. "…All day?"

"Puma," Morgan finished.

Sarah stood there holding onto her boyfriend's hand not having any idea of what was going on. She didn't underestimate it to be a stupid Buy More antic because Chuck seemed even more shaken than Morgan.

With his hand still on Chuck's shoulder, Morgan looked at Sarah and then back at Chuck. "Good luck, my friend." He departed into the home electronics aisle and that was the last they saw of him.

Sarah dragged her eyes away from the bearded one's retreating form and looked up at Chuck. "You mind telling me what just happened?"

Chuck shot his head down to look at her. "Hm?" he said skittishly. Pointing to the direction Morgan had gone, he said, "Oh, that? That… That—That was nothing. We just have out first offsite install. So… let's go… do that." Chuck sighed and walked with her to the Nerd Herd desk where his job description was sitting in a small manila envelope. Sarah was a little weirded out by how much it resembled a CIA mission assignment. He let go of her hand and opened it. He skimmed the page and then put it back in the envelope. "Great. Got it. Just let me grab my tools and we'll hit the road." He then left to go to the back room.

Sarah stood alone at the Nerd Herd desk and surprisingly didn't notice that Jeff had appeared there. He was creepier than she gave him credit for. He looked practically abysmal, though. She told herself to just ignore it but her curiosity got the best of her. "Something wrong?"

Jeff looked at her glumly. "Lester quit JEFFSTER again. For good."

"Oh," she said.

"But I don't want to have to give up my dream just because he walked out. I just need to find a singer. Better than Lester. That'll show him." Jeff looked her up and down and she felt even more uncomfortable. "What about you?"

"Horrible singer," she said immediately. "Terrible. Not good. Bad. Awful, really. Stage fright, too. Really bad." She couldn't think of any more negative words to use to describe her performance skills and reasons for never ever being in a band with him.

Jeff kept staring at her. "You're hot. We could just have you stand there…"

Sarah was starting to get panicked and without thinking she threw out, "Chuck! Chuck has a great singing voice!"

She watched Jeff's eyes light up at the suggestion. "Lester's always been jealous of Chuck. It's perfect!"

Sarah's eyes widened. _'Oh, god, what did I just do?'_

"Ready to go?" Chuck came up from behind her and she jumped. "Woah, you alright?"

"Fine!" she lied before grabbing his arm and walking to the exit and saying, "Let's go."

Chuck wasn't so sure she'd be as excited about this trip once she knew what it was. When they got in the car and started driving he tried to weigh the options. Tell Sarah, don't tell Sarah, get a flat tire, fake his own death… None of this really helped him but it did remind him over and over again of what could go wrong.

"I love you…" he said in an attempt to build up to what he was going to tell her, "so… _so,_ so much."

"I love you, too," she said with a smile, having learned that it was best to always respond with that answer. She reached over and took his hand. "…What's wrong? Your hand is all sweaty." She looked at him more attentively. "Are you nervous?"

"What?" he said flustered. "Don't be ridiculous, of course not." He looked into her eyes and they didn't show any sign of belief. He could feel his façade cracking under her cold, hard stare. His willpower was melting away like an ice cube in a microwave in the middle of the desert. "That's a lie," he spit out, shaking his head and then nodding. "Yes, I am very, very, very nervous. A 'Puma' means a… um… well, I guess it's sort of like a… cougar?" Sarah raised one eyebrow significantly. She could have made The Rock tap out with that look alone.

"Why did you get assigned to it?" she asked like Casey would when he was trying to keep his calm.

Chuck shot his eyes from the road, to her, to back at the road, to back at her. "She kind of… uh… asked for me specifically."

"How did she know who you were?"

Chuck squinted his eyes and blew out a puff of air as he drove. "I've, you know, helped her out before."

"How many times?"

"Oh, you know…" he said reluctantly, "Three, four, five, six times maybe."

"Six times."

Chuck swallowed hard. "…Yup." He wished this drive were a lot shorter than it actually was.

Sarah sounded softer when she asked, "Is she single?"

"You know, we, uh, never… We never really got to that," he lied.

She caught him. "Tell me."

"More or less," he answered. "She and her husband have an… understanding. Is how she puts it."

Sarah narrowed her eyes. "And how many times has she "put it" that way?"

"Oh, you know…" he said reluctantly, "Three, four, five, six times maybe."

Sarah's stare, if at all possible, intensified.

It was a much longer drive than he remembered it to be.

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When they reached the house, if it could be called that, Chuck had to lean out of the window to press the buzzer that would let the guard know he wanted to come in.

"Name?" the speaker box said.

"Uh, Buy More Nerd Herd," he said. "Someone called about a speaker installment."

With no other words exchanged, the large metal gates slid open and Chuck drove through up the terrace to the mansion.

"Who knew the Buy More had such a wide range of customers," Sarah said as she stared at the exotic peacocks in the field they drove by.

Chuck laughed as he weaved through the driveway. "Well it'd be kind of strange if Moses Finkelstein used the Geek Squad." Sarah turned her head and stared at him.

"This is Moses Finkelstein's house?" she said incredulously.

Chuck shot a look over his shoulder. "Oh, yeah. Did I not tell you that?"

She shook her head and then paused. "Wait. Are you telling me the woman we're doing this for is his _wife_?"

Chuck didn't say anything for several seconds but eventually he let out a barely decipherable, "…Mhm."

Sarah sunk into her seat. This just kept getting better and better.

When they reached the circular driveway in front of the mansion Mrs. Finkelstein was already there waiting for them in a bathrobe that ended mid-thigh. It was suggestively tied loosely around her waist and she held a wineglass in her hand. The diamond on her finger was almost as big as the half-full glass. Sarah of course saw at it as a glass half-empty.

"Hi, Mrs. Finkelstein," Chuck said as they walked up to the door.

The woman laughed much louder than necessary and sighed, "Oh, Chuck, darling, I told you. Call me Sarah."

Sarah Walker's jaw dropped. This was a joke. Chuck coughed and looked at his girlfriend to see her staring a hole into him. "Well, uh, actually her name is Sarah, too. So I don't want anyone getting confused," he said.

Mrs. Finkelstein then directed her attention towards Sarah and looked her up and down. "Hmph." She held out her hand palm facing the ground at Sarah. "Sarah Finkelstein."

Sarah smiled tightly and didn't meet her gesture. "Sorry," she said fakely, "Hands just have so many germs on them."

The woman grimaced in disdain at the suggestion her hands were covered in germs. She was not a fan of the blonde. Mrs. Finkelstein waved at Chuck before walking into the house. "The speakers are by the pool," she said over her shoulder. Chuck took one more look at his partner and stepped into the house with her following behind. Sarah was somewhat used to being in expensive mansions belonging to assholes so she wasn't exactly out of her element.

The woman showed them to the pool in the back and explained to Chuck one last time where she wanted each speaker to go. "If you're ever in my hot tub, you'll have the experience of a lifetime," she added for what would be true once the speakers were installed, but she looked straight at Chuck when she said it. "I'm sure you'll do a wonderful job." She then walked back into the house, wineglass still in hand.

As they watched her go, Sarah leaned up and in his ear whispered tensely, "Chuck Bartowski, you will never be in that hot tub."

"The only time I would ever want to be in that hot tub was if it was with you, sweetheart," he said smoothly.

She eyed him and said, "You've been holding onto that line for a while, haven't you?"

Chuck smiled and put his hand on her back to turn her towards the speakers. "Since we got here."

"So now what do we do now?" she asked, looking at all the speakers they needed to install. Well, _he_ needed to install them. She didn't know the first thing about how to install poolside speakers.

Chuck sighed and put his hands on his hips as he looked at everything. "Alright, well if you want to cut down how much time we'll be spending here today, which I know you do," Sarah raised her eyebrow and tilted her head in agreement, "how about you just hand me all the tools I need. They're all labeled so it's not too complicated."

"That I can do," Sarah said, turning and walking to his toolbox. It was on the ground where he'd put it so she bent down to unlatch the locks. Chuck couldn't help but stare at her bent over form in that short black skirt. He had a feeling she was doing it on purpose just to tease him. "What do you need first?"

Chuck blinked a few times and shook himself out of his lust-filled daze. "Um, the Exacto knife, please. I've got to cut open all the boxes first."

"Oooh, can I do it?" she pleaded like a little kid begging to put the quarters in a parking meter. Except instead of quarters, it was a knife. If Chuck had learned anything in the three years he'd known her, it was that no one should ever get between Sarah Walker and a knife.

"Uh, sure, honey," he stuttered, "Go right ahead."

Sarah sliced through the boxes in record time and looked very content while doing so, he noticed. He made a mental note of that for any future fights they may have. Next time she was angry, just give Sarah a knife and… No. Wait. Bad idea.

They worked together for a about an hour piecing together all the different equipment involved. Sarah was Chuck's obedient little helper and he did most of the heavy lifting, both literally and figuratively speaking.

About two hours in Chuck suddenly got the cold feeling of a dark ominous cloud hanging over his head. He realized that feeling was caused by all of the negative energy radiating off of his girlfriend as their client walked towards them.

"Sorry to interrupt," the woman blushed, "but I thought you might need some refreshments." She lifted up the tray she was holding with a pitcher of lemonade and empty glasses on it. She even had the tiny umbrellas.

Chuck looked up from what he was doing and raised his eyebrows at Sarah. She rolled her eyes but didn't protest, so he said, "That sounds great, Mrs. Finkelstein. Thank you."

She put the tray down on a poolside table and poured two glasses. She handed the first one to Chuck, and then as if it was an afterthought, went to hand a glass to Sarah. Except instead of reaching Sarah, the glass collided with Chuck's torso and spilled all over his white shirt.

"Oh!" Chuck said in surprise.

Mrs. Finkelstein put the glass down and grabbed some conveniently placed napkins on the tray. "Oopsies," she said as she took it upon herself to wipe down his chest, "Clumsy me." The shirt was clinging to his abs and entirely see-through. Dropping her hands, she said sounding defeated, "This shirt is ruined. Here, give it to me and let me see if I can't wash this out." Sarah's eyes narrowed and Chuck began to protest but the woman fiercely said, "I will not take 'no' for an answer, Chuck." Chuck sighed and tried ignoring how Sarah was looking at him while he began to unbutton his shirt. She was the CEO's wife after all.

He can't remember how exactly because he must have blocked it out of his mind, but Chuck was soon shirtless and Sarah was absolutely fuming. That "accident" could not have been any more forced if it was in an infomercial for spot remover. Sarah had half-expected the undead Billy Mays to randomly pop up out of a bush and hold up a bucket of OxyClean. Not only that, but that horrid woman had sure taken her sweet time while surveying his naked torso before going into the house.

It was an uncomfortable silence after Mrs. Finkelstein had left. Sarah refused to look at him and Chuck really had no words to defend himself. Finally he weakly suggested, "Should we get back to work?" With her arms crossed, Sarah gave him the dirtiest look he'd ever seen and walked over and sat by the toolbox. "Alright." He looked around and picked up one of the speakers. "Hey, have you see the Phillips screwdriver? I know you handed it to me earlier but I don't know where it is."

"I don't know, Chuck," she answered shortly, "Maybe it's up your ass."

Chuck's head shot around to look at her staring at him smugly with venom in her eyes. She held his glass of lemonade and took a long, slow sip out of it, never taking her eyes off of him. Chuck sighed and said, "I'm sorry." She didn't say anything in response, so he began working on his own realizing she was not going to help him any time soon.

The dark ominous feeling had stuck with him the entire time he was shirtless, so he couldn't tell any difference when Mrs. Finkelstein had returned outside. Sarah had taken to the idea of reclining in a pool chair and not speaking to him, so he received no warning before Mrs. Finkelstein came up behind him.

"Marvelous job you're doing, Chuck. Just look at those muscles at work." Chuck jumped at the sound of her voice and was startled to see her in nothing but a white and gold designer bathing suit with a large sunhat and equally large sunglasses. She of course still had a wineglass in hand and after smiling at Chuck, went to lie down in a chair far away from Sarah. "Oh, Chuck!" she called from her spot, "Could you be a doll and bring me over my suntan lotion? Silly me must have forgotten it over there." Chuck looked at Sarah and the only thing that gave away she had heard was her nails digging into the armrest until her fingertips turned white. He stood there for several seconds before grabbing the bottle and walking quickly over to her. "Thank you, dear," she said before he walked back to where he was working.

Sarah's eyes were closed but she had to bite back a smile when she felt someone place their large hand over her smaller one and kiss her forehead. She waited until she felt him walk away to sneak a peak at the man she was madly in love with.

Chuck continued to work under the hot sun and his muscles were glistening with sweat, a sight which Sarah would have enjoyed had she been the only Sarah enjoying it. It was a half hour of that before Chuck turned to Mrs. Finkelstein and asked, "Do you know if there's an ETA on my shirt? Sorry, I'm just feeling a little exposed here."

Mrs. Finkelstein lowered her glasses on her nose and looked at him. "No need to be ashamed, darling. You look absolutely delicious." She finished with a wink and Sarah's jaw dropped. She couldn't pretend to ignore this any longer.

"Excuse me, ma'am," she said, sitting up, "would you like me to check the dryer?"

Mrs. Finkelstein seemed almost outraged that Sarah was addressing her, but putting on a façade of toleration, she said, "No, no... I'll do it." She stood up out of her chair and walked around the pool past Chuck. Sarah could see how blatantly she was trying to show off to him and smiled inwardly when Chuck paid no attention whatsoever.

Ten minutes later she came back out with his shirt in hand. "Again, I do apologize for spilling on you, Chuck," she said to him as she walked over and handed him the shirt. "My mind must have been…" she gave his body the once over and finished, "someplace else."

Once Chuck had his shirt back on he got back to work wiring the speakers through their mounts in the ground. He sat down and worked hunched over, tools scattered around him. One wire he had been working on had frayed at the end and was refusing to go through the ridiculously small hole in the mount. He tried inserting it for over four minutes with no luck and finally he saw out of the corner of his eye a roll of electrical tape. The thing was, it was at his eye level. Chuck turned his neck to see Sarah sitting down next to him holding up the tape for him. He smiled wide but didn't say anything, knowing it was best to just continue on than put the spotlight on her. No words needed to be said between the two and he simply took the tape from her hand and ripped off a piece. "Thank you," he said sincerely, handing it back to her. He wrapped the tape around the frayed wire and easily got it to fit through the hole.

With Sarah by his side, he finished everything else in under an hour. They started going around and packing up everything they had taken out over the course of the day, and when Mrs. Finkelstein saw this she said sounding hopeful, "Oh, Chuck, you're not done, are you?"

"Yes, ma'am," he replied. "Just have to test it out and then we're all set." He went over to his bag and got out his iPhone. Walking up the iPod dock he put in behind the hot tub, he connected it to the dock and pressed play.

"_Birds flying high, you know how I feel…"_

Sarah smiled knowingly and looked at him.

"_Sun in the sky, you know how I feel…"_

Chuck smiled knowingly and looked back at her.

"_Breeze drifting on by, you know how I feel..."_

They both started walking towards each other.

"_It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me. Yeah, it's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me…"_

When they reached the midpoint Sarah slid her hands through the hair on the back of his head and leaned on her toes and kissed him.

"_And I'm feeling good…"_

l ll l ll l

When they were all packed and getting ready to leave, Mrs. Finkelstein walked up to them and said, "Let me show you out." Sarah wasn't thrilled about having to spend one more second of time with this woman but she kept her mouth shut and followed them through the mansion. "I knew it," Mrs. Finkelstein said with a laugh. "I said it right from the start. You are without a doubt the best of the best, Chuck."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Chuck said nicely.

"It's true," she insisted. "So what are you doing with _her?_," she joked about Sarah—but not really. Sarah face darkened and Mrs. Finkelstein turned around and lied, "I'm _kidding_! But seriously, Chuck, what are you doing with her?" She brought her hand to her chest. "Oh, I'm terrible!"

Chuck thought he might have heard a growl come from behind him. He wondered not for the first time that day if Sarah had any knives on her.

Finally they reached the large front doors. "It was a delight seeing you again. Come back any time, Chuck."

Chuck just smiled nervously and walked out of the doorway. Sarah followed behind him and bumped into Mrs. Finkelstein hard enough to cause her to spill her glass of red wine all over her white bathing suit. She shrieked and Sarah brought her hand up to her mouth insincerely. "Oopsies," she said fakely, "Clumsy me." Mrs. Finkelstein was too shocked to speak.

Sarah walked out of the house and all the way to the Herder with a content smile on her face. Chuck was in the front seat and when she got in beside him he made no effort to start driving. He just sat there staring at her. Sarah ignored him for a while, deciding to just stare ahead. Finally her wanting to get the hell out of there overweighed her pride and she rolled her eyes with a sigh.

"Okay… You were right," she admitted with a mumble about getting jealous.

Chuck was now the one with a content smile on his face and he put the car into drive. "Thank you," he sang before turning around and driving out of there. Sarah was a pretty sore loser and that was something she had come to accept.

"I wouldn't be so happy with myself if I were you," she warned. "Considering you're first on the list as the new addition to JEFFSTER..."

Chuck slammed on the brakes, and turned to her with a horrified expression.

"_What?_"

l ll l ll l

_Sorry about the long wait. Tryouts start in a week and then school starts in two so not sure when the next update will happen. Reviews do help a ton, though. I often get ideas for future chapters from your feedback and right now I have no ideas._

_Music featured:_

_"High Violet" by The National (album - and a pretty amazing one at that.)_

_"Terrible Love" - The National_

_"Feeling Good" - Nina Simone (Chuck vs. the Honeymooners)_


	4. Chapter 4

_I know you're all impressed by me updating so quickly. You're welcome._

* * *

**Chapter 4**

"Hey, Morgan?"

"Yeah, Chuck?" Morgan said as he hopped over to his best friend.

Chuck leaned in and motioned to Lester who was behind him at the Nerd Herd desk. "Can you tell me why Lester has been staring a hole into the back of my head all day? He looks homicidal."

Morgan slyly (for Morgan's standards) looked over at the Nerd Herder who best resembled an Indian lesbian. He looked back at Chuck and raised his eyebrows with a shrug. "I don't know." He snuck another look. "It's kind of creepy, huh?" Chuck widened his eyes and nodded as if that was the most obvious statement ever. "I would've thought he'd be mad at Jeff right now, not you. You know Lester quit their band? He thought they were getting too corporate again."

"Right, that makes sense," Chuck said dryly.

Chuck missed Morgan looking behind him again and then immediately diverting his eyes. Sarah had brought her finger to her lips signaling for him to pretend he didn't see her.

"Hey, you," she said as she slipped her arms around Chuck from behind.

Chuck jumped but then laughed softly and turned his neck to look at her. "There's my better half," he said. "For a second I thought you were Lester sneaking up to murder me."

Sarah furrowed her brow and looked between him and Morgan for any clue to what her boyfriend was talking about. Lifting her head slightly, she asked, "Why?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing," Chuck said, indirectly answering her question.

"Well, have you tried asking him?"

Chuck looked at her and whispered, "Honey, you look at his face and see if you'd be ready to go over there and talk." Sarah showed Morgan what discretion really looked like when she snuck a glance at the Hin-Jew.

Pressing her cheek against Chuck's shoulder to hide her mouth she said, "I think he might be planning on doing something with that mini screwdriver." She felt him tense under her arms and she let go so she could face him directly. She put her hands on his arms and looking in his brown eyes said, "Do you want me to take care of it?"

Both Chuck and Morgan's eyes instantly widened at the offer. Chuck gulped and said, "I don't even want to know what your version of "taking care of it" entails." Sarah didn't budge and he told her, "Seriously. I think I'm alright."

Sarah smiled brightly and perkily leaned up to plant a kiss on his cheek. "Okay! Well, I'm going to go over to Orange Orange. Want me to grab you anything?"

It scared Chuck a little how she could transition from trained assassin to angelic girlfriend in the blink of an eye, but he had also gotten somewhat used to it. "Yeah, tell Casey I want "the usual." He'll know what that means." There was a glint in his eyes that gave her the impression Casey would know what that meant and he wouldn't like it.

Turning to the shorter man she said, "Alright, what about you, Morgan?"

"Actually, do you mind if I come with?" he asked her. "I've been meaning to stop by and say hello to mi amigo, John Casey."

Sarah shook her head helplessly and gave Chuck a peck on the lips. "This should be interesting." She then turned and said, "Come on, Morgan."

Chuck smiled as he watched them go. Sarah had always had an understandable aversion to his oft-creepy friend, but lately she had taken a liking to him. He wasn't sure if that was because of them being roommates, teammates, or because Morgan now had a girlfriend to keep him grounded. Probably a combination of multiple things. Whatever the reason, he was happy two of the most important people in his life had found a way to get along.

Chuck heard scraping and turned around to see Lester shaving away the surface of the Nerd Herd desk with a screwdriver, a sick smile plastered on his face. Chuck decided it was time for him to go.

* * *

"So how are things going with you and Alex?" Sarah asked as she and Morgan walked side by side over to the frozen yogurt shop.

"Good, actually," Morgan said sounding surprised. "I would have thought for sure she would run as far away as possible once she found my Star Wars collection but it turns out she's kind of a closet nerd. Don't tell Casey that."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Sarah laughed. "Well, I'm happy for you. Sounds like you two are really good together."

Morgan smiled. "Yeah, well, I'm not sure if we're at "Chuck and Sarah" level status but we're doing pretty well considering I'm one half of our pairing."

"Oh, I wouldn't sell yourself short. She obviously sees something in you." They smiled at each other and kept walking.

"So how about you," Morgan said, changing the subject. Sarah looked at him. "You're going to have a ring on that finger pretty soon, huh?"

Sarah blushed a deep pink and looked at her feet as she tried to hide her smile. "Seems that way, yeah. Just waiting for Chuck to pop the question."

Morgan smirked and nudged her with his arm. "Excited?" he teased, drawing out the word. Her face told him the answer to that question. "His proposal plan will blow you out of the water," he promised her. Seeing the curious look she gave him he quickly added, "And I have direct orders to under no circumstance reveal to you what said plan is! So don't even try to get me to talk."

Sarah laughed under her breath. "Try?"

Morgan rolled his eyes. "Okay, as previously proven, yes, you could easily extract the information out of me. But really, Sarah, where's the romance in knowing?"

"Good point," she told him, backing down. She wouldn't dream of ruining the proposal, if not for herself then for Chuck. He no doubt will have slaved over making sure everything went perfectly. For her to not be surprised would just be cruel. Even though she hates surprises... She may need to rethink this.

They finally reached the door to Orange Orange and Sarah opened it to let Morgan in. "Try not to get yourself killed," she advised him as he walked through. She followed him in and was met with the joy-filled face of Colonel John Casey.

"What the hell are you doing here?" is the greeting Morgan received.

Morgan held his hands up and walked to the counter. "Hey, I can't come pay my friend a visit? I just wanted to wish you the best in your future endeavor." Casey narrowed his eyes and growled, only supporting Morgan's theory that he was originally raised by a pack of wolves.

Ignoring the conversation going on between the two males in the room, Sarah smirked and walked around the "Yogurt & Fun" counter to get her own things. Casey had never ordered from her while she was working there as a cover so she figured she'd return the favor. She scooped some fresh kiwi into a cup and noted that the slices weren't as clean cut as when she worked there. No matter how ridiculous the situation, Sarah took pride in her skills with knives. She was surprised the fruit didn't have bullet holes in it, considering Casey was the one preparing it. She then opened a cabinet under the counter where she had kept things for Chuck whenever he ordered something. She grabbed a bag of chocolate covered gummi bears and closed the door to the cabinet. Chuck's smile the first time he found out she'd gotten them especially for him was enough to make her never run out. The way her heart had fluttered when he told her that was "really thoughtful" showed just how far gone she was before they even started dating.

The little smiled on her face from thinking about Chuck stayed there as she left the shop. She assumed the snapping noise she heard as she walked away was the plastic spoon finally giving way to Casey's clenched fist. Morgan certainly knew how to push his buttons.

Sarah walked into the Buy More and noticed Chuck was no longer at the Nerd Herd desk. Standing on her toes, she scanned the area for him and came up empty. She eventually found him in the break room sitting with his forehead pressed against the table and arms hanging to the floor. No one else was in there and she smiled sympathetically before putting down the food and walking up to put her hands on his shoulders.

"Poor baby," she cooed as she started to massage the base of his neck.

"Mmm, that feels good," said his muffled voice. She could feel him relax beneath her working hands. Once she was sure he was feeling better she pulled out the chair next to him and sat down, keeping her hand on his back and moving it in circles.

"You, Mr. Bartowski, are one of the most stressed out people I know." Chuck grunted his agreement. "And yet," she said, watching her hand rub against the white fabric of his shirt, "I still can't figure out why." Chuck sighed and sat up to face her. She gave him a small smile and brushed away his brown curls. "Other than the giant secret computer in your brain, of course," she added. "What's going on?"

Chuck laughed self-depreciatingly and said, "I've got Sarah Walker for a girlfriend and still have bad days. There must be more wrong with me than I thought."

"That's sweet, but you still didn't answer my question."

He shook his head adorably. "Just having an off day."

Sarah stared blankly at him for a couple seconds before slapping his knee and standing up. She grabbed his hand and pulled. "Come on."

"Where are we going?" Chuck struggled to stay seated, not thrilled with the idea of using his legs.

"Just come with me. We're going out to lunch and if you're not the slightest bit happier by the time we get back then you have my permission to wallow in self-pity for the rest of the day."

Chuck sat there for a while weighing his options with Sarah's crystal blue eyes staring at him. "…I can live with that," he decided.

* * *

Chuck and Sarah walked out of the break room and were halfway to the exit when Sarah realized she'd forgotten her jacket in her locker. Chuck told her he'd wait for her to go get it and that was when he saw his best friend walk in through the sliding doors and head his way.

Morgan was wiping at his face and in his beard when he reached Chuck.

"I take it the fact that there are rainbow sprinkles sticking out of your nose means the visit to Casey didn't go as well as you'd hoped," Chuck said humorously.

Morgan waived off Chuck's observation. "Casey just isn't used to all those feelings of friendship and brotherhood like you and I. In due time, Chuck."

With that comment Chuck was amazed that a nose full of sprinkles was the only thing Morgan walked away with.

"Well, Sarah and I were just on our way out for lunch, so I'll—What the…?" Chuck stopped when he was hit in the side of the head with something mid-sentence. He bent down to pick up the crumpled piece of paper and opened it to read its contents. _"Home theater room. Come alone."_ Chuck recognized the inexplicably girly handwriting from Lester's offsite install reports. He sighed and rolled his eyes, showing Morgan the note.

"Scary," Morgan said, throwing in a dramatic shudder for good measure.

Chuck motioned in the general direction to the home theater room. "I'm going to go see what this is about."

"Good luck, man," Morgan said before turning around. He then caught himself and told Chuck, "Uh, there's a grape soda under the couch. If you run into any trouble you could maybe, like, shake it and then spray…" He acted out spraying Lester in the eyes with soda.

"Morgan." Chuck pointed to his head in a 'Duh' kind of way.

His friend snapped his fingers and pointed at Chuck. "Or flash. Flashing works, too."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," he said.

* * *

Sarah walked out from the break room with her jacket just in time to see her boyfriend enter the curtained home theater room. She squinted her eyes and went to follow him. What she found in there was not what she was expecting.

Chuck was in the middle of the room surrounded by green shirts and nerd herders pumping their fists and cheering. Next to him was Lester, who poked him in the chest as hard as he could and then climbed up to stand on the coffee table.

"With these Buymorians as witnesses, I, Lester Patel, challenge Charles Bartowski… TO A DUEL!"

At this the crowd erupted even more. Chuck's face displayed his confusion and Sarah tried to fight her way through the crowd to reach him. She didn't get very far, and a few seconds later heard her name being called from behind her. She turned and saw Morgan standing behind her.

"What's going on?" he yelled over the noise.

Sarah wondered if he could read her mind because those were the three words going through her head since she entered the room. She shook her head slowly and said, "Lester just challenged Chuck to some kind of duel…?"

"The winner," Lester continued, gaining both Morgan and Sarah's attention, "will become the lead singer of JEFFSTER!"

At this, Sarah realized that this whole thing was her fault. Her mouth hung open and all she could say was, "…Oh." She felt horrible. Leaning towards Morgan's ear, she shouted, "Morgan, get me to Chuck."

He looked at her and then nodded. Keeping her behind him, he pushed through, threatening his subordinates if they didn't disperse. It wasn't an easy task, but he garnered better results than Sarah had. She finally made it through and Chuck saw her.

"Sarah," he said helplessly, desperate to find a way out.

"Should he accept, he will face me in a single round of the unreleased game, Karaoke King, courtesy of Fernando's uncle, Jerry."

"Lester," Chuck said, holding his hands out palms down.

"One round!"

"Lester!"

"Bets are being taken by Skip over by the—"

"LESTER!"

"Quiet, Charles! You're ruining the festivities," Lester shouted.

"I don't want to be the lead singer of JEFFSTER! I don't want anything to do with it," he told him exasperatedly.

"Ho ho," Lester said in a high pitch, bringing his fist to his mouth. "Looks like the great Chuck Bartowski is afraid of a little competition!"

The crowd of Buy-Morons suddenly began to taunt Chuck with mocking cries of "wah wahh" and putting their fingers in the shape of an L on their foreheads.

"I will respect the results of the duel," Jeff announced.

"What?" Chuck couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Are you insane? There will be no duel. I have no intentions of becoming a part of that band. All I want to do is go out to lunch with my girlfriend, who, by the way," he looked at Sarah, seeming more frustrated than angry, "has a lot of apologizing to do." She had to admit she deserved that. "Now if you'll all excuse me, I'm going to leave now."

He took Sarah's wrist and led her through the sea of unhygienic employees, weaving his way towards the exit. She had the right mind to keep her mouth shut until they got away from the home theater room.

Finally as they were making their way outside she said, "You have to believe me, I had no idea. I'm so sorry."

He had let go of his hold on her wrist the second they got out of he home theater room and had since walked while engaging in no physical contact.

"S'okay," he mumbled unconvincingly, looking at his shoes.

"Hey." She put her hand on his arm and stopped walking. He turned around and she made him look at her. Sliding her arms around his waist she smiled as she inched closer to him. "Forgive me?"

"I'm not really mad at you," he told her. She looked so cute he couldn't resist leaning down to kiss her while she smiled up at him. Parting, he said, "I can't possibly hold you responsible for every illogical conclusion Jeff and Lester's minds come to."

"Well, I'm sorry anyways," she said. "I should have known better."

Chuck put his arm around her shoulders and she kept one arm around his waist as they continued walking towards the car. "Maybe it's my fault," he laughed. "I mean, I am your mentor. I probably should have warned you."

She could tell he was joking and she was glad he had moved on. Getting her car keys from her purse, she said, "So where to?" They both got in the car and she waited for an answer.

"Good question," he said. "I'm not sure."

Sarah smiled, "Well, we could go enjoy a romantic meal under the fluorescent lights in Castle."

Chuck laughed and said, "Tempting, but we seem to do that quite often, don't you think?"

"I guess so." She pursed her lips and looked up and off to the side as she fought to produce a good enough idea. "What if we grabbed some sandwiches and then went to the beach?"

"You mean eat _sand_wiches on the _sand_?" he joked.

Sarah laughed and asked, "So where do you want to get them? It's Subway or Lou's." She looked at his face and could see him struggling to not say what she knew he wanted to say. But it was his day, and she wanted to make him happy, so she ignored any previously harnessed feelings and put her hand on his leg. "Lou's it is."

Chuck smiled and looked at her. "Are you sure? I know you don't like going there."

"That's only because of Lou," she told him. "I do like their food."

Chuck looked like he was hesitating saying something and she looked into his eyes to try and figure out what. Eventually he asked, "…Can—can I get a 'Chuck'? Or is that pushing it?"

Sarah smiled and shook her head before telling him, "Whatever you want."

"You're amazing."

"Tell me something I don't know," she said cheekily, turning on the engine and shifting into drive. Chuck laughed and rested his arm out the window. Sarah drove across the parking lot and stopped outside the deli. Chuck undid his seatbelt and put his hand on the door before he noticed she hadn't moved.

"You coming?"

"I think I might just stay here," she told him. Joking, she said, "You barely have full visiting rights as it is. Both of us going in together may ban you for life."

Long after the Weinerlicious had been replaced, Chuck went to Lou's and made the argument that his deal of going to the Weinerlicious instead of the deli was no longer applicable. Lucky for him, Lou had found a new boyfriend and they were pretty serious, so she had no feelings, good or bad, for Chuck Bartowski. She did make him fix her iPod for her, though.

"Good point. Turkey on wheat?" he asked.

"Am I that predictable?" Sarah loved that he had taken the time to memorize every little thing about her.

Chuck pointed to his head. "The Intersect's like a filing cabinet up here. Keeps track of all the details for me." Sarah's face fell. So he didn't really take any time at all. He saw her reaction and his famous Bartowski smile spread across his face. "I'm just kidding. That's all Chuck."

Her eyes turned dark for a split second and she leaned over and hit him in the arm. "Jerk."

He laughed and opened the car door, putting his foot down on the pavement. He turned back to her. "Extra olives, right, sweetheart?"

Sarah pushed him out.

Watching him walk into the deli, she flashed back to when Chuck had broken up their fake relationship after the whole pentathol incident. She's always wished she had told him the truth. Wished she hadn't been such a robot. Standing there as she watched him with another woman had made her forget to breathe and her chest tighten an almost unbearable amount. But that was all in the past. She didn't have to put on that emotionless façade anymore. She was in love with Chuck and she'd tell him as many times as she wanted. He needed something real, and Sarah was finally able to give him that.

Chuck had been gone for a while, so to pass the time Sarah leaned her head against the headrest and watched the clouds drift by, taking advantage of the convertible top. It was quite peaceful until the silence was broken by a loud car horn directly behind her. Sarah grimaced and knowing that she had parked so that there was more than enough space to drive around her, motioned for the person to go around. The response that earned her was the driver leaning on the horn obnoxiously. Sarah dropped her head forward in frustration and looked through her rearview mirror. What she saw made her drop her jaw in disbelief. "What the?" She undid her seatbelt and got out of the car, walking over to the black Audi R8. She ran her hand along the sleek lines of the car as she neared the driver's window, which started to roll down as she got closer. Standing in front of the open window with a smirk, Sarah said, "And I thought _my_ car was pretty."

"Well, Walker, can't let you have all the fun," Carina said, matching Sarah's smirk with one of her own, before opening her door and stepping out to hug her friend.

"What? No fight? No helicopter?" Sarah asked after embracing her friend. "Who are you and what have you done with my friend?" She again looked back at the sports car. "And where did you did get this?"

"So I may have left out of my report that the drug lord scumbag I took down had a bit of a car collection. Big deal." Sarah cocked her head in disapproval but there was still a smile on her face. Raising her hands in defense, Carina said, "I dumped the plates and, no, there are no drugs anywhere on the car." Carina motioned at Sarah up and down with her hand. "Now please explain this outfit."

Sarah looked down at her revealing Nerd Herd uniform and sighed. Shrugging her shoulders, she simply said, "CIA covers."

"Makes sense," Carina said. "That skirt length has CIA written all over it." Sarah laughed at her vast knowledge of the skimpy uniforms the agencies came up with for their female agents. She then turned when she heard her name being called.

"Sarah?" Chuck said, walking to her Porsche with a brown paper bag in his hands and a couple of drinks.

She brought up one hand to wave and said, "Over here, Chuck." He saw her and placed the food into the car before walking over to her and…

"Carina?"

"Hi, Chuck," she smiled nicely. While Sarah was one of her oldest friends, she had started considering him a friend, too. That is, if he didn't hurt Sarah.

Chuck hugged her and while looking over her shoulder, gave Sarah a confused look. Sarah saw and just shrugged. No idea. He let go of Carina and said, "So what brings you back to Burbank?"

"I'm on leave right now after a prolonged mission in Vegas, so I figured why not take a little road trip and visit you guys."

Chuck raised his eyebrows. "That's a pretty long drive, isn't it?"

"It was a good chance for me to try out my latest commodity," she said, motioning to the car.

He looked between the two female agents before asking, "Do I want to know?"

Sarah smiled. "Probably not."

He took her word for it and changed the subject. "So how long do you think you'll be in Burbank?" Chuck asked the DEA agent.

Carina smirked and said, "As long as I feel like it I guess." She looked at Sarah and told her, " I figured I would just stay at your hotel if that's alright with you."

Sarah's eyebrows raised and she opened her mouth, looking from her friend to her boyfriend. "Actually," she started, sharing the same look with Chuck. "I, um…" She leaned into him and held onto his arm, "I live with Chuck now."

One of Carina's perfectly manicured eyebrows peaked at this. "Oh?" A sly smile was sneaking its way onto her face as she surveyed the couple. She pointed back and forth with one finger. "So you two are an item now? Can't say I'm surprised." She turned to Chuck. "You know she's been in love with you since day one."

Chuck smiled brightly and put his hand over the one resting on his arm. "Yeah, she, uh, she may have mentioned that." Sarah smiled up at him and gripped him tighter.

"Aw. You two are cute in your matching outfits and all," Carina told the couple. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything by stopping by."

"No, not at all!" Chuck said politely, swallowing his disappointment caused by the sudden change of plans.

Because she knew him so well, sometimes better than she even knew herself, Sarah could see through his façade easily. "We were actually going to go eat lunch. I promised him we'd stop by the beach. It's been kind of an off day today. We figured we'd go relax for a little bit."

"Oh, okay, well, you guys go do that," Carina told them nicely. Chuck and Sarah both couldn't deny they were a little surprised by how understanding she seemed. "I'll just, you know, find a motel somewhere around here. It's not like I couldn't defend myself if there were any break-ins..."

Sarah immediately realized why Carina was acting that way. Chuck didn't.

"What? Don't be crazy," he said. "You're staying with us. Here, how about you follow us back home and Sarah and I will go out while you get settled."

Carina put her hand on her chest. "Oh, I wouldn't want to impose…"

"No, we insist. Right, sweetheart?" Chuck said, turning to Sarah.

Sarah looked at Chuck and smiled. "Right." She narrowed her eyes at her friend, knowing she was taking advantage of Chuck's kindheartedness. She found it to be more funny than anything else, knowing she wouldn't let Carina stay anywhere else, either.

Carina smiled. "Okay. I'll just follow you guys, then."

After getting back in the car, Sarah put her hand on Chuck's leg and rubbed it up and down. "Hey. Thank you, for being… well, you." He looked over and smiled at her and that was all that needed to be said between the two.

After a few minutes of driving and Sarah challenging herself to stay at the normal speed limit so Carina could easily keep up, Chuck decided to make conversation. "So this was a surprise, huh?"

Sarah swerved around a sedan and then reminded herself to slow down for the spy tailing them. "Yeah, well," she said, "It's kind of rare to get a heads-up call from Carina."

"When's the last time you saw her?" Chuck asked.

"Not since you have," she answered, "But we've stayed in contact between that. Not very often, but sometimes."

"Really? That seems like it'd be hard to do with spies," he said sounded surprised.

Sarah took a right turn and checked her mirrors again to see if the black car was still there. "Yeah, well, they invented this thing a while back called the telephone." Chuck rolled his eyes. "It seems to work pretty well."

"Very funny," he deadpanned. Sarah smirked and slowed down at a stop sign. "Wait. If you've stayed in contact with her then why didn't she know we were together?"

She looked at him before focusing on the road again. "I told you, we don't talk very often. The last time we spoke was before Paris. Then she had her mission in Vegas and she couldn't risk any outside calls." She put her hand on the back of his neck and played with his short curls. "Trust me, if she had called I would have shouted it from a rooftop."

"I think I may have actually done that," Chuck said honestly.

"What?" she asked, turning her head, "Seriously?"

"It wasn't exactly a rooftop," he explained. "More like a… balcony, or a… window."

Sarah's melodic laugh filled the air as she pulled into a parking spot a respectable distance away from the Crown Vic that was occupying the neighboring space. Carina pulled up next to them and they all got out of their cars.

"Home, sweet home, huh, Walker?" Carina teased. Sarah smiled and simply shook her head.

Carina popped the trunk on her car and grabbed the handle of her suitcase.

"Oh, let me get that," Chuck said, stepped forward to take it for her. Carina stepped back and let him get it, shooting Sarah an impressed look with raised eyebrows.

The two women walked ahead of Chuck into the courtyard. "Picked a good one, Walker," Carina told her.

Sarah smiled brightly. "You're not the first person to tell me that."

* * *

"I'm going to go throw this stuff away," Chuck said, grabbing the paper that had wrapped their sandwiches from off the table and bringing them into the kitchen.

The three spies had lost track of time and instead of Sarah and Chuck going off on their own, they ended up staying in their living room swapping stories with their new guest.

"Thanks, sweetie," Sarah said, moving her legs out of the way so he could get past her. Carina watched him walk away and looked at Sarah who seemed oddly fit for this normal environment.

Carina cocked her head to the side and scrutinized her friend. "So this is your end game?" It was more of a statement than a question. In response, Sarah simply looked at her and smiled. "I can't say I'd feel the same way about this place as you, but you do seem happy."

"I am happy."

The two women looked at each other enjoying the moment of friendship they seemed to be sharing. It wasn't often they got to discussing these things. Especially when it came to real world relationships. Even though Carina hadn't spent nearly as much time with Chuck as she had, Sarah thought for a split second that maybe Carina was changing. He was known for his irresistible heartwarming. She only thought this for a split second, though.

"…Great sex," Carina said matter-of-factly, pinpointing that as the source of Sarah's glowing disposition.

"Carina!" Sarah's eye widened in shock at her friend's bluntness.

Seeing Sarah's reaction, Carina gave her a face that said _'yeah, right.'_ Her mouthed curved up at the corners and she said, "Am I wrong?"

Sarah opened her mouth and couldn't find any words to say other than, "Well… no…" Carina smirked. "Shut up."

"What are we talking about?" said the one male in the apartment as he returned to his girlfriend's side.

"Nothing," Sarah said, shooting him a quick smile.

"…Other than her telling me how amazing you are in bed," Carina added sweetly.

Chuck's eyebrows shot to the top of his head and his whole face turned red. He looked to Sarah but she was smiling open mouthed in disbelief at Carina.

"Um." Chuck cleared his throat. "Okay. Anyways, I hate to cut his short, but our lunch break ends soon so I think we may need to head out."

"Oh, well, I guess duty calls," Carina said. "I was thinking about taking a little trip to Rodeo Drive for a shopping spree, so you two have fun with the nerd thing…"

At the mention of "Rodeo" and "shopping spree," an involuntary guttural noise was produced from the blonde in the room. It was not unlike the kinds Chuck had heard in their bedroom many times before. Chuck's head turned to her and she looked a little embarrassed by her own reaction.

Carina smirked at this. "You wouldn't want to come, would you, Sarah?" she teased.

Sarah was desperately trying to ignore the things going on in her head. The little off-centered crease that formed between her eyebrows when she was inwardly debating something was present. Knowing that her not returning to work would defeat the entire purpose of the new cover, Sarah finally steeled herself and said, "Can we go tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow," Carina repeated. "The day _after_ the bikini sale."

"Bikinis?" The women looked at Chuck. "I mean, uh," he cleared his throat, and looked at Sarah, "You can—you can go if you really want."

Sarah raised her eyebrow and the corners of her mouth lifted. "I'd need your opinion, of course, sweetie."

His mouth forming into that boyish smile she loved so much, Chuck raised his hand with staccato and pointed to his chest. "M—me? Yeah?"

With her eyebrow still peaked, she slowly nodded. "Mhm."

"What do you say? Wanna be our official bikini judge?" Carina asked.

"I'm gonna go call Morgan," he said as he shot up off of the couch.

* * *

"I'm gonna go call Morgan."

"No, Chuck! Look at this blouse. What do you think?" Sarah said from behind a clothes rack.

"Mhm. It's great, honey," he mumbled for the ten thousandth time since getting out of the car. He had already beaten his 70-level game of Brick on his iPhone and was now searching the App Store for another version of Angry Birds.

"Look alive, Chuck!" Carina said before unloading four shoeboxes into his arms. "Hold these." She was gone before he even had time to protest. Chuck sighed and leaned his shoulder against the wall of the store.

Despite the earlier conversation, Chuck had yet to see any bikinis on his blonde, leggy Valkyrie. In fact, after doing a quick 360 around the store they were currently in, he didn't think they even sold them here.

"Judging by the black high-tops and all around bored disposition I'm going to rule out gay best friend," Chuck heard a woman's voice say. He turned his neck and saw a brunette employee in her twenties scrutinizing him with her arms crossed and her hand on her chin. "No, I'm going to take a guess and say you're the devoted boyfriend who had no idea what he was getting himself into."

Chuck gave her a closed mouth smile. "Good guess."

She looked at the two women she had seen him walk in with. "So are you with the blonde or the red head?"

Chuck followed her line of vision and smiled as he saw Sarah. "The blonde. I'd like to think she loves me as much as she loves shoes, but it looks like shoes may have the edge today," he joked, turning back to the saleswoman and smiling.

Just then Sarah's head turned and she looked over at Chuck. The smile she was wearing dropped off her face when she saw the new friend he had made. A frown formed when she saw the hair color.

"Hey, what do you think of this neckline?" Carina asked Sarah standing next to her. When she got no response she looked up and saw the spy's less-than-pleased visage. Sarah kept her eyes on Chuck as she aggressively folded a shirt she had picked up and put it back on the table. "Oh, my God. Sarah Walker, are you _jealous_?"

"What?" Sarah said, breaking her stare and looking at Carina. "Don't be ridiculous," she denied.

"Wow. You totally are. He really is "the one," isn't he?" Sarah's glare returned to the saleswoman and Carina sighed and then yelled over at Chuck. "Chuck did you get those in a size 7 yet?"

"Um… no?"

"Well, what are you waiting for?"

"If I'm not mistaken, I believe my instructions were strictly to "hold these," and that was it," Chuck said defending himself.

"I can get them for you," the brunette woman offered Chuck.

"Thank you," Carina sang, successfully completing her mission. She turned to Sarah. "And you're welcome."

Sarah watched the woman take the boxes from Chuck and go to the back to get Carina's size before she moved over to her boyfriend. He looked at her and mustered up a smile. "Hey, baby," she said sweetly, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Having fun?" she joked. His eyes said otherwise and she tilted her head to the side. "I know. I'm sorry. Once we get out of here I promise I'll make it up to you."

Chuck rubbed his hand over her back. "You know, for as much crap as you put me through, you _do_ always somehow make up for it."

Sarah smiled brightly and leaned up to kiss him, placing her hand flat against his chest. Pulling away somewhat reluctantly, she bit her lip bashfully and patted his pectoral. "Don't ever forget it, Bartowski." She turned her head to see the brunette return and she started running her fingertips lightly over his shirt in a circular motion. "Let's go sit and wait for Carina to try those on and then we can go have some fun."

"What kind of fun?" Chuck asked suggestively.

"You'll just have to wait and see," Sarah playfully retorted. "There a men's store down the street with dress shirts…" Chuck's face dropped, and Sarah leaned up to seductively whisper in his ear, "I'm sure they'll have a replacement for your shirt after I rip it off of you."

"…Ohh," he groaned quietly, gripping her hip with his large hand.

Sarah smiled at him and winked. "Come on." She slipped her hand into his and pulled him to the small couch in the middle of the floor. She sat down and pulled him down next to her. He put his arm around her shoulders and she leaned in with her hand on his leg.

Jess came out and looked around for her customers. Her friend Stacy came up to her. "Cute boy you were talking to," she teased.

"Yeah, well, unfortunately I don't think anything's going to happen there," Jess admitted.

"Hm," Stacy said suggestively. "Mind if I go for a crack at it?"

Jess laughed ruefully and turned her attention to the couch. "Good luck getting through her."

Stacy's eyes widened when she saw the blonde woman leaning into him. "_Wow_, she's gorgeous." Stacy dropped her arms. "Well, I have no chance. On to the next one." Jess laughed and brought the shoes to the red headed woman.

"Is it just me or do all these shoes look the same?" Chuck whispered in Sarah's ear as he watched Carina try them on.

Sarah elbowed him in the ribs. "It's because of guys like you that we buy these things. Would you rather I walk around in Crocs all day? Didn't think so," she said without waiting for a response. They had had the earlier conversation that Crocs were truly the most hideous footwear on earth. They had agreed that if you're not a nurse, baby, or an old lady gardening, you had no excuse for wearing them.

Chuck smirked and to pass the time started tapping his foot to the music playing over the store speakers. "I like those, Carina!" he shared randomly. He wasn't even looking at her shoes. He just wanted to speed up this never-ending process.

"Well, I don't," she said honestly. "I'll take the other ones," she directed at the saleswoman.

"Oh, thank god," Chuck sighed. Sarah smacked his arm.

* * *

"Looks like your Batman turned out to be Catman, or shall I say… Pussyman. Huh, Robin?"

A loud cheer of "OH!" came from multiple employees within hearing distance.

Morgan nodded his head. "Alright, guys, lay off of Chuck."

"No way, my bearded colleague," Lester said. "Not until the duel has been… dueled. Your cowardly comrade will face his destiny in the confines of the Home Theater Room! And I will rise again!"

Morgan's expression was that of wide-eyed disturbance. "Dude, I've met some weird people, but you are seriously high up in the rankings as the weirdest."

Lester slowly stepped up to whisper in Morgan's face, "Don't forget it," before migrating to a new area of the store.

Morgan shuddered and straightened out his tie before going to his office.

"This sucks," he sighed.

* * *

"This is great," Chuck said to himself. He was sitting in a plush white chair in the fitting room of Aqua, a boutique that only sold one thing: bikinis. He was by himself, because the two women he had walked in with were behind the curtains in front of him trying different tops and bottoms on. The reason it was so great is that he got to be the judge of each one.

"I'm coming out, Chuck!" Sarah called. This had been going on for quite some time already but Chuck still had to quickly try to hide the glow on his face so that he wouldn't be too obvious about his joy. He failed spectacularly. The curtain flew open and his jaw dropped. "…Wow."

"What do you think?" she asked, turning around to show him the back of the blue and silver bikini.

"You're beautiful."

Sarah smiled patiently. "Not me, the bikini."

"Anything that allows you to show that much skin is A-okay with me, honey." He shot her a sly grin and she winked at him before going back behind the curtain.

"Dude, is that your girlfriend?" Chuck turned to see a guy that looked like he was in his early twenties sitting in the chair next to him but at a right angle.

"Yeah, she's with me."

"Damn," he said. "What's your secret?"

Chuck laughed and replied, "Luck."

"Okay, Chuck, I'm next!" said a voice behind a different curtain.

The two men watched Carina Miller saunter out towards them in the slinkiest bright red bikini they had ever seen. Chuck had a flashback to when Carina had tried to seduce him in her hotel room wearing only red lingerie and a silk robe. But then he pictured a certain blonde in his rolled up boxers and t-shirt and he had to admit that was ten times sexier.

"What the…" the guy next to him let slip.

Carina waited as she tried to read his expression. "Well, Chuck?"

"It's, ah, it's... it looks great… Carina."

She motioned behind her. "Put it in the 'maybe' pile?" Chuck nodded and she went back to try on another one.

"Alright, dude, seriously," the guy leaned over. "How?"

Suddenly the girl the guy had come in with stepped out wearing normal clothes. "Okay, I'm done. Let's go." He shrugged at Chuck, stood up and the two walked out of the fitting room.

"Hey, babe?" Sarah called.

"Yeah?"

She poked her head out and asked, "Can you help me tie this?" Chuck got out of his chair and went to help Sarah.

"Hi-yo!" Chuck squeaked once he got inside. "You know, Sarah, when you asked me to tie something for you, I was assuming you would be wearing something for me to tie."

"Mmm," Sarah hummed, stepping up and pressing herself against him. "I'm tricky like that."

Just then Carina's voice broke through the air. "Chuck?" Sarah had an impish smile on her face.

"Yeah, hi, I'm just helping out Sarah in here." He was surprised his voice only cracked twice during that sentence.

"Not yet," Sarah complained in a whisper, undoing to top button on his shirt.

Carina called back, "Okay, I'll be out there paying for these." Chuck thought that he was successful in hiding the situation going on at the moment until Carina sang, "Have fun…" as she made her exit.

Chuck didn't respond for it was at that moment that Sarah lips latched onto his neck and his shirt became expendable. She wasn't kidding about buying him a new one.

Minutes later, with his jeans down by his ankles, he didn't feel the cellphone in his pocket vibrate with a text from Morgan.

"_Get back to Buy More ASAP."_

* * *

_A/N Despite the fact that I received them about a year ago, I haven't forgotten your reviews. I've already written an Ellie/Devon scene to get them involved in the story for the future. I couldn't resist adding Carina since she's my favorite character to write. I might try writing for Zondra, too, motivated by my love for Mercedes Masohn. If you don't follow her on Twitter, you are seriously missing out. Hope you enjoyed the latest chapter. Drop me a review letting me know what you thought and vent out all your anger after the prolonged wait. It'll be therapeutic for you and motivational for me. And before I forget, thank you to everyone who said you liked Mrs. Finkelstein. She's the first time I've ever dabbled into OCs, and I wouldn't be surprised if she ended up making a return. And the "Duel" scene is a reference to The Office when Dwight and Andy fight over Angela. The episode is named "The Duel." I don't know why. _

_Review! I may just update again before the world ends._


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